A sex poll came out 2 1/2 years ago, but I am only just now hearing about it. Oh, well, it seems like sex is always leaving me standing at the station these days.
The articles on the poll deal with teenagers having lots of oral sex, apparently instead of intercourse. The article all act like this is horrible, but I actually think it is good. Despite my feast or famine bachelor life, I actually do love sex, and I am a sexual liberationist. The articles mostly fuss on and on about all of the diseases one can acquire from oral sex.
First of all, this is part of an insane national neurosis we have long had in this nation about sex. Europeans have long commented on it. We are Puritans yet we demand that Americans be having sex continuously. Even if they are not married. Even if they are not 18.
Yes, it is true. There's a $6 billion dollar a year porn industry and we are in the midst of a Mass Hysteria called Child Molester Hysteria. Although there are reasons to worry about adult sex abuse of children, I really fear that this is part of our neurosis about teenagers, especially teenage girls, having sex.
Child Molester Hysteria, the way I understand it, pretty much makes it illegal for teenage girls to get laid. If she does it, the guy's a molester, no matter what his age is. It is understandable that conservatives, Christians, married men and vaginized males of all types would be behind this Protect Our Teenage Girls! bullshit. What doesn't add up is that the feminists are behind it too.
Yep, feminists, the very women who ought to supporting teenage girls who choose to have sex, who ought to even be urging girls to learn to have an orgasm by age 15 since science shows waiting longer increases the odds she will never get one, are leading the charge of this preposterously chivalrous, putting girls on a pedestal nonsense.
Anyway, on the article . Article says, teenagers not screwing so much, good. Having oral sex instead, bad. Why is it bad? Because, the article worries, you can get VD. What sorts of VD can you get? Well, syphilis, warts (HPV), gonorrhea and herpes. Well, let us look at this notion.
As far as cunnilingus goes, it would be quite hard to catch much of anything from doing that. You would be better off to worry about getting hit by a meteor. So go ahead and do it! To your heart's content! She'll love ya for it, guys!
Now, onto fellatio. It is true that one can get gonorrhea of the throat from doing this, but it's not a common problem, except maybe in the gay community. Syphilis is quite rare outside the gay community, and you always just very noticeable symptoms. So it's not much to worry about.
About herpes, well, one out of every six adults has it anyway and it won't kill you. It comes on strong at first, then it fades to an annoyance, and there are drugs that take out the flareups. So no worries.
HPV is much more troubling here since research shows that you can catch it in your throat, and it apparently can lead to throat cancer. I'm at a loss for words about this, but I don't think it's the worry of the century.
Lesbianism got a lot of writeup in the study. Apparently 14.4% of young women aged 20-24 have tried it with another female. That's interesting, but it's got to be higher than that. Only 6.5% of males that age have done it with another guy. Those figures have got to be wrong.
What's interesting is that whenever they go out and do these face to face surveys about sex and dope, they come with some very low figures for both gay sex and dope. No one wants to fess up to being a fag or a doper, even if they were only gay for a day, or if they didn't inhale.
But recently a new study allowed persons to answer questions about sex and dope anonymously via computer in a locked room. They were assured repeatedly that there would be no way to link up their computer answers with their actual selves, since the testers themselves were not grading the tests.
As one might expect, scores for sex and drug use for young Canadians were much higher when the answers were submitted via computer privacy than via face to face.
The authors considered that maybe people were making stuff up on the tests, but then rejected that. Testers had been closely questioned before about the importance of being honest on their answers. If they were inclined to make stuff up, they were asked not to take the test.
The numbers for current homosexual behavior among this group of young Canadian males were about 13-14%. Most of it seemed to be what we would call opportunistic homosexuality, or bisexuality, among especially single males. I don't intend to have sex with males myself, but as a young men I saw epidemic levels of opportunistic male homosexuality all around me among young males, especially single ones.
This was in Southern California in the late 1970's and early 1980's.
Other studies have shown some fairly high levels of males experimenting with homosexuality. Kinsey got 37% lifetime, but his work has been questioned. The Playboy Survey of the 1970's got 25% lifetime, and I always thought that was about right.
The same computer surveys above also found remarkably higher drug use among respondents than face to face surveys found, especially of hard drugs like PCP or heroin.
One of the major findings of the study was that more and more straight folks are getting into anal sex. 40% of men have tried it, and 35% of women have. That's about double previous surveys. Gay men have always gone in for this kind of sex bigtime for obvious reasons. I'm not going to say much about this for myself except to say I don't have much interest in that sex act.
Porn has made anal sex very popular, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.
As a sexual liberationist, I really don't care how people do it. I think people ought to consider that there may be a health downside to this type of sex. I have seen reports on bulletin boards of women aged 30 or so who had lots of anal sex in their 20's who know have to wear a type of diaper because they have lost some control over their bowels. That's called anal incontinence.
I don't know how much anal sex you have to have before something terrible like this happens to you, but it's something people might want to think about before they jump into anal sex too much.
There are all sorts of gay rights types and sex educators that say there is no way this can happen to you if you practice anal sex the right way, but I wish they would spell out their theory in clear science so it's something more than a crap shoot.
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Showing posts with label Drugs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drugs. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Crazy Women Ahoy, Pull the Anchor and Leave
Ah, crazy women! I suppose if I were really nuts, I would not mind a crazy woman. After all, I would probably deserve her, right? Sad thing is, I am hopelessly prejudiced against crazy women. I don't like em. I discriminate.
I have enough problems of my own to deal with without crazy women on top of everything else.
I remember this one crazy woman, I broke up with her, and she goes and punches a hole in the wall! Whoa, baby, hold onto your horses! I broke up with you? Hell, you should be happy!
She used to swallow handfuls of acid tabs (like five hits at once) when we went out on dates. She drank like a fish. She would smoke any kind of weed you gave her and probably take any kind of drug too. All her friends were fags and she specialized in the sickest fags of them all, the ones in Hollywood who loved masochism. She regaled me with their tales of how these guys required welts raised two or three inches before they were satisfied. Her idea of a good time was going to an LA fag bar. That was what she did most of the time, as she was almost a full-time fag hag. She also had straight boyfriends, apparently, as she did like men and sex. Going to an LA gay bar is not my idea of a good time.
One night she was drinking like a maniac and she grabbed four or five tricyclic antidepressants and tossed them down. I protested and she cried out that this was for all of the misery that she was in. So she was deeply psychiatrically ill, as you can see. Diagnosis: Borderline Schizophrenia, which nowadays goes to Borderline Personality Disorder.
She had a weird way of talking, and we would go out and it seemed that she would act so crazy and weird in public that I would be embarrassed to even be seen with her. She spoke in weird metaphors and it really started annoying me. I'm kind of like neurotic, "staring off into space like a weirdo" nuts, but I'm not "stark raving acting out bats" nuts like that. Forget it. I told her, "Hey, look, you are just too nuts for me," and she freaked. I wonder if she is still alive. She was also quite a masochist as far as sex went, but I could not really get into that too much. Anyway, most females are like that to some degree or another, let's face it. It goes hand in hand with being female.
She was always telling me about stories where she was meeting guys who would pull knives on her, rape her, threaten to kill her, torture her, etc. One time it was a whole group of guys and she gangbanged them all. Whopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Except they were all pulling knives on her and trying to torture her and threatening to kill her at the time. She was quite proud of her gangbanging experience, but my best friends heard about it and were totally freaked out and appalled, saying she was a disgusting slut pig whore. That was true of course, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
She also liked women a little bit, but only a little. She really loved young boys, as she called them, and delighted in having sex with teenage boys, especially around 13 years old. Her Mom was schizophrenic and had tried to stab her to death in her sleep when she was a little girl, and I guess it was all downhill after that. She had all these weird seemingly different personalities that she would fade in and out of all the time. Now, I'm into channeling myself, but this sort of thing really ought to be controlled in order to work best, otherwise you just seem like a street person or a potential maniac.
Later she accused my best friend of hitting a baby in the EEG lab where he worked. According to everyone else, it never even happened, but she insisted and insisted. I think maybe they fired her, but I forget.
I saw her once later, she came over to the folks house in the daytime, and you know how that goes. I was 27 years old, graduated USC with post-BA degree, back living at home again, teaching school full-time, smoking lots of dope, going nuts, but couldn't get it together enough to move out. Dumb or what?
The culmination of the sex act on my end left her all pissed off, but I thought it was funny that when I kissed her goodbye at the car, I swear some of the middle aged neighbor ladies were laughing and smiling and giving me the thumbs up?
One housewife even sneaked outside and gave me a great big beaming smile. Who says women don't like guys who score?
Women ain't all bad, guys.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Cops Taser Violent Man on Drugs
I am looking for translators to translate this post into German. Email me if you are interested.
Pretty wild video. A Large Black man is standing in the center divider on a busy street in a large city, possibly in the US. He seems to be intoxicated. Police approach him to get him out of the way or find out what is wrong with him. As a cop approaches, the guy punches a cop!
Then he takes off his shirt, then his tshirt, all the while pounding his chest like a he-man. It now seems like he might be on drugs. Other cops approach with their guns out, threatening him, but to no avail. The maniac keeps on posturing.
Finally, a cop comes up from behind with a Taser Gun which he shoots from behind the guy. The guy quickly falls to the ground as if he were hit by a gunshot, then starts going into convulsions on the ground. Cops try to handcuff him while he is trashing around on the ground like a chicken, but he is still very combative. So the cops Taser him again. He goes into more convulsions, and this time, they can handcuff him.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Mexican Drug Gang Beheads a Man
I am looking for translators to translate this post into German. Email me if you are interested.
Spanish translation (en Español).
This is a truly horrible video. It is insanely gruesome. They behead the man very slowly on purpose just to torture him. So slowly in fact, that he basically drowns in his own blood. Be warned! Very sickening video!
The man who was beheaded is named Manuel Mendez Leyva. He was a worker for La Barbie, a cruel and sadistic drug kingpin who has killed many federal forces and undertaken many brutal executions. The man who had Leyva killed was El Chapo Guzman (Javier Guzman), La Barbie's rival.
Here is a translation of the Spanish dialogue in the video:
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “What is your name?”
Hostage(Manuel): “Manuel Mendez Leyva.”
Hostage taker(guy with gun): “Repeat it to me.”
Hostage (Manuel): “Manuel Mendez Leyva.”
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “Who do you work for?”
Hostage (Manuel): “La Barbie.”
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “Repeat it to me.”
Hostage(Manuel): “For La Barbie.”
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “What are you in charge of?”
Hostage (Manuel): “Getting/obtaining pills and ephedrine.”
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “Repeat it to me.”
Hostage (Manuel): “Getting/obtaining pills and ephedrine.”
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “What did he[La Barbie] have planned?”
Hostage (Manuel): “A war against El Chapo Guzman.”
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “Repeat that to me”
Hostage (Manuel): “A war against El Chapo Guzman”
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “Who is leading this effort?”
Hostage (Manuel): “La Barbie, Lopez Aragon, Lazarito, Alejandro, and some others.”
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “When are they planning to initiate this war?”
Hostage (Manuel): “Once the boss gives the order.”
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “Who rented the houses?”
Hostage (Manuel): “I rented them to make offices... (indistinguishable dialogue)”
Hostage taker (guy with gun): “Repeat that to me.”
Hostage(Manuel): “I rented them to... ummm, ummm(exhales) to, to make them offices and use them to do, umm to commit crimes.”
Hostage taker(guy with gun): “That’s all you got.”
Hostage(Manuel): “That’s all I got sir.”
Hostage taker(guy with gun): “From here on you’re gone, you’re leaving.”
Hostage(Manuel): “To where? What are you going to do?”
Hostage taker(guy with gun): “Put your hands down.”
Other Hostage Taker 1: “SSSHHH”
Other Hostage Taker: “Ssshhhh!”
Hostage(Manuel): “NOOOOOO!”
[decapitation starts]
(INDISTINGUISHABLE DIALOGUE)
(MORE INDISTINGUISHABLE DIALOGUE)
Hostage Taker: “It doesn’t rip.”
Hostage Taker Announces: “This is going to happen to all of those that are against us.”
Hostage Taker: Put it there.”
Background Voice: “That’s it, we’re done.”
Other Background Voice: “Slowly, slowly.”
Executions and decapitations are rampant in Mexico these days. The heads are often left in public for people to see. Bodies are tortured and hung from overpasses to terrify people in a similar way. Lately, they have turned to publicly videotaping their executions and releasing them on the Internet, a la the Islamic terrorists.
Mexico is in for a long battle with these guys, and it won't be over any time soon. The government has waged war on the drug cartels for years now, with little success. Part of the problem is that most of the state is now corrupted, and much of the state is in fact working for the cartels. Much of the rest have been bribed by the cartels to stay out of their business.
Some towns on the border have been so disrupted by incessant violence that residents are actually starting to flee the towns.
It's a total mess with no end in sight.
Monday, November 08, 2010
Brazilian Man With Shoulder Infected from Shooting Synthol
I am looking for translators to translate this post into German. Email me if you are interested.
This video is seriously sick. It shows a young Brazilian man who got an infection his shoulder from injecting Synthol, which is used to increase muscle size. The disgusting material pouring out of his shoulder is simply pus from the infection. This happens quite often when men inject steroids or Synthol under unclean circumstances.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
¡Un Chico una Aguja!
I am looking for translators to translate this post into German. Email me if you are interested.
This is the Spanish translation of the famous One Boy One Needle post by Frederick Furby from Argentina.
This post has been translated into Korean (한국) and French (en Français).
Este video en realidad salió hace unos años, pero sigue siendo bastante visto, o tal vez recien esta empezando a ser popular. No estoy seguro. Se lo conoce con muchos nombres. La mayoría de ellos, distinto de Chico Heroína, no son memorables.
La historia detrás de este video es muy extraña, y nadie sabe si este video es real o no.
La historia detrás de este video es que un chico ruso deseaba mostrar los peligros de las drogas filmandolo, el mismo incluye algunos jóvenes inyectandose heroína en Rusia. El niño filmado tiene 8 años. El chico filmando el video era un traficante de drogas.
El video supuestamente muestra al nene de 8 años inyectandose heroína y después muriendo de sobredosis. Después de filmar el video, el traficando lo lanzo a distintas agencias occidentales para recolectar dinero y fundar su clínica de rehabilitación. Se robó el dinero y nunca fundó ninguna clínica.
Fue arrestado por la policía despues. La policía decidio que él era culpable en parte por la supuesta muerte del nene. Fue condenado, y murió en una prisión rusa. La causa de la muerte descripta por los oficiales fue: "Se golpeó la cabeza contra la pared repetidas veces hasta morir". Si claro! Parece que fue golpeado a muerte por los guardias, otro presos, o ambos.
Cómo sabemos todo esto? Porque otra versión de este video tiene un diálogo ruso de fondo (consegui la versión menos molesta "sin diálogo"). Una traducción de ese diálogo revela la historia que cuento aquí arriba.
De todas formas, nadie sabe si la historia es verdad. No sabemos el nombre del nene de 8 años quien supuestamente murió. Algunos dicen que él ni siquiera murió, que su supuesta muerte en el video es "simplemente normal, esperados efectos que se obtienen al inyectarse heroína". Tampoco tenemos el nombre del supuesto traficante, menos alguna prueba de que fuera arrestado o de que muriera en prisión. En resumen, nada de la historia de fondo de este video a sido verificada todavía.
Algunos dicen que este video probablemente es de los 90' cuando Rusia estaba inundada de heroína, y hasta los pequeños chicos estaban consumiendo. Desde ese entonces, las cosas se han calmado muchisimo.
De todas formas, falso o no, este video esta asustando a muchas personas que piensan que están viendo a un nene de 8 años morir de una inyección de heroína (y tal vez lo estan haciendo, ¿quien sabe?). Compite como uno de los peores videos de la red. Este video realmente no me molesta porque no es violento. Solo me digo a mi mismo que ese nene va a dormir y no morir, y después todo va a estar bien. Claro esta que es preocupante ver pequeños nenes drogandose.
Desafortunadamente, la única copia que pude encontrar tiene este estúpido semi-alfabetizado diálogo basura escrito en el comienzo, escrito por el idiota que maneja el sitio web King of Cordia's Den. Él es quien hizo este video, y mis habilidades para editar videos no son suficientes para deshacerme de sus anuncios patéticos y analfabéticos en el video.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Un Garçon Une Aiguille
I am looking for translators to translate this post into German. Email me if you are interested.
This is the French translation of One Boy One Needle by Natalie from France.
This post has been translated into Korean (한국) and into Spanish (en Español).
Cette vidéo est parue il y a quelques années, mais a encore un grand succès, ou alors commence a avoir un grand succès, j’ai un doute. Elle est nommée de plusieurs façons, la plupart ne méritent pas d’être rappelés, à part « l’enfant à l’héroïne ».
L’histoire de cette vidéo est très étrange, et personne ne peut dire si ces images sont vraies ou fausses.
Il s’agit d’un garçon russe voulant montrer les dangers de la drogue, qui s’est débrouillé pour tourner cette vidéo, qui concerne des jeunes qui s’injectent de l’héroïne en Russie.
Le garçon en train de se piquer a 8 ans. Le gars qui a tourné les images était un revendeur de drogue. Cette vidéo est supposée représenter le garçon de 8 ans qui se shoote et qui meurt de l’héroïne. Après avoir tourné la vidéo, le dealer l’a donnée à des agences de presse occidentales afin de financer sa désintoxication en clinique.
Plus tard il a été arrêté par la police. Les flics ont décidé qu’il était en partie responsable de la mort probable de cet enfant. Il fut emprisonné et mourut dans une prison russe. Les causes de la mort décrites par les fonctionnaires: « il a battu la tête contre le mur de façon répétée, jusqu’à ce que mort s’ensuive ». Mais oui, bien sur. Cela ressemble plutôt à un tabassage par les gardiens, les co-détenus, ou les deux.
Comment sommes nous au courant de tout ceci? Parce qu’une autre version de cette vidéo possède un dialogue en russe en arrière fond (j’ai mis la version sans le dialogue, moins ennuyeuse). La traduction de ce dialogue révèle l’histoire que je viens de mentionner plus haut.
Toutefois personne ne sait si cette histoire est vraie. On ne connaît pas le nom de l’enfant âgé de 8 ans qui est supposé mort. Certains disent qu’il n’est pas mort, que sa mort supposée n’est que l’effet normalement produit par l’injection d’héroïne. On ne connaît pas le nom du supposé dealer, ni n’avons aucune preuve qu’il ait été arrêté ou qu’il soit mort en prison. Bref, à ce jour rien n’a pu être vérifié.
On dit que cette vidéo date probablement des années ’90, quand la Russie était sérieusement envahie par l’héroïne, et que même les jeunes enfants en prenaient. Depuis ça s’est beaucoup calmé.
De toute façon, vraie ou fausse, cette vidéo effraie un tas de gens qui pensent qu’ils sont en train de regarder un enfant de 8 ans qui meurt d’une injection d’héroïne (et peut-être est-ce vrai, qui sait?). Ces images sont en compétition avec les plus terribles vidéo sur le Net.
Cette vidéo ne me trouble pas vraiment car elle n’est pas violente. Je me dis que l’enfant s’endort, pas qu’il est en train de mourir, alors tout va bien. Bien sur c’est gênant de voir un enfant se shooter.
Malheureusement la seule copie que j’ai pu trouver est affublée de la surimpression d’un dialogue merdique et semi illettré au début, écrit par l’imbécile du site king of Cordia’s Den. C’est lui qui a édité cette vidéo, et mes talents en vidéo édition ne sont pas assez bons pour me débarrasser de ce mauvais texte en surimpression.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Photo of James Vance, Failed Shotgun Suicide
This is an incredible photo and video of James Vance, who tried to blow his brains out with a shotgun but unfortunately was unsuccessful and survived. It seems he put the shotgun under his chin and fired upwards. He lived, but his face is seriously mangled in the worst way. If I had to get up every day and look at that in the mirror, I think I would go back and finish the job once and for all.
On December 23, 1985, just in time for the holidays, Vance and friend Ron Belknap, both seriously depressed teenagers, made a suicide pact. Then they went to the local church playground while loaded on various drugs and shot themselves in the face. Belknap luckily died, but Vance unfortunately lived, having given himself the worst Christmas present anyone could ever get.
Vance spent the next three years undergoing reconstructive surgery and treatment drug abuse and suicidal thoughts. He died in 1988 from complications of surgery and his use of methadone to try to cure himself of opiate addiction. Cause of death was methadone overdose, and it is thought that he may have successfully committed suicide.
His parents sued the rock group Judas Priest for wrongful death claiming that their song lyrics made Vance attempt suicide, but they lost the case.
In the video above, Vance sits at the scene of the suicide attempt and tells what happened on that day.
James Vance, failed shotgun suicide victim. Reconstructive surgery has been somewhat successful, but he's been left looking like a freak.
Friday, November 13, 2009
어린 소년의 히로인 주사
I am looking for translators to translate this post into German. Email me if you are interested.
This is a Korean translation of the One Boy One Needle post.
This post has been translated into French (en Français) and into Spanish (en Español).
Some people have found this video pretty upsetting, so exercise caution in viewing.
이 비디오는 실제로는 몇년 전에 등장했습니다만 지금까지 유명했는지 아니면 아마 지금부터 유명해질 것인지는 모릅니다. 몇몇 이름들이 나오지만, 히로인중독 소년들을 제외하고는 누군지 기억이 나지 않습니다.
이 비디오의 뒷이야기는 매우 이상합니다. 그리고 누구도 이 비디오가 가짜인지 진짜인지를 모릅니다.
뒷이야기인즉슨 마약의 위험성을 알리기위한 한 러시아인이 촬영된 비디오를 편집한 영상이라는 것입니다. 러시아의 어린 소년들이 히로인을 주사하고 있는 장면을 포함해서요. 촬영된 소년은 8살 입니다. 처음 비디오를 촬영한 사람은 실제론 마약상이었습니다. 이 편집된 영상은 아마 8살 소년이 히로인을 맞다가 결국 그것때문에 죽어갈것이라고 묘사하는것 같습니다. 그는 이 비디오로 마약재활원 건립 자금을 받는다며 비디오를 서방기구에 공개하였지만 그는 돈을 받고는 재활원을 건립하지 않았습니다.
그는 나중에 경찰에 체포되었습니다. 경찰은 저 소년에 대한 살인 미수를 적용했습니다. 그는 수감되었고 러시아의 감옥에서 죽었습니다. 교도관들이 그의 죽음의 관해 말하기를 "그는 끊임없이 벽에 머리를 박다가 죽었습니다"라고 합니다 그렇겠죠 아마도 교도관들이나 다른 수감자들에게 맞거나 아니면 둘다에게 맞아 죽은듯이 보입니다.
어떻게 이런걸 아냐고요? 왜냐하면 다른 버전에는 뒤에 러시아 말로 설명이 있거든요(저는 설명이 없어 보기 좋은 버전을 가지고 있습니다.) 그 러시아어 설명이 제가 위에서 말했던 것입니다.
어쨋든, 아무도 그 이야기가 진짜 인지는 모릅니다. 저 죽을것처럼 보이는 8살 소년의 이름도 모릅니다. 몇몇은 저 소년이 죽지 않았으며 저 죽어가는 것 처럼 보이는 건 단지 "헤로인을 주사하고 나서 보이는 정상적인 반응" 이라고 합니다. 우리는 저 마약상의 이름도 모르고 그가 체포됬는지 감옥에서 죽었는지도 모릅니다. 간단히 말해 이 뒷이야기는 아직까지 사실이라고 결론이 나지 않았습니다.
몇몇은 이 비디오가 90년대 러시아에 헤로인이 급속도로 퍼질때 등장했다고 보고 심지어 어린애들또 주사했다고 합니다. 그 후로는 잠잠해졌습니다.
어쟀든, 가짠든 진짜는, 이 비디오는 8살소년이 헤로인을 주사하며 죽어가는(진짜 일수도 있고)장면에 놀랐습니.다.
이건 인터넷상의 아주 저속한 비디오 들중 하나입니다. 폭력적인게 없어서 전 별로 큰 충격이 없군요. 저는 스스로 저 소년이 죽는게 아니라 잠에 들며 다른 문제는 없을 거라고 생각합니다. 물론 어린애가 마약주사하는게 좋지많은 않군요.
불행하게도, 제가 찾은 다른 복사본은 처음 시작할때 King of Cordia's Den 웹사이트의 한 멍청이가 써놓은 온갖 난잡한 설명으로 뒤덮여있더군.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
One Boy One Needle
I am looking for translators to translate this post into German. Email me if you are interested.
This post has been translated into Korean (한국), into French (en Français ) and into Spanish (en Español).
This video actually came out a few years ago, but it is still going viral in a pretty big way, or maybe it is just starting to go viral, I am not sure. It goes by all sorts of names. Most of them, other than Heroin Boy, are not memorable.
The story behind the video is very strange, and no one knows if the video is fake or real.
The story behind the video is that a Russian guy wanting to showcase the dangers of drugs arranged the shooting of the video, which involves some young boys shooting heroin in Russia. The boy who gets shot up is 8 years old. The guy shooting the video was actually a drug dealer.
The video supposedly depicts the 8 year old boy shooting heroin and then dying from the heroin. After he shot the video, the dealer pitched it around to Western agencies to fund his drug rehabilitation clinic. He stole all the money and never set up any clinic.
He was arrested by police later. The cops decided that he was guilty in part for the supposed death of this boy. He was imprisoned, and he died in a Russian prison. Cause of death described by officials: "He repeatedly banged his head up against the wall until he died." Yeah right. Looks like he was beaten to death by guards, other inmates, or both.
How do we know all of this? Because another version of this video has Russian dialogue running in the background (I got the less annoying "no dialogue" version). A translation of that dialogue reveals the story I just repeated above.
Anyway, no one knows if the story is true. We don't know the name of the 8 year old boy who supposedly died. Some are saying that he didn't even die, that his supposed death in the video is "just the normal, expected effects you would get from mainlining heroin." We don't have a name of the supposed dealer, nor any proof he got arrested or that he died in prison. In short, nothing behind the background story about this video has yet been verified.
Some say that this video is probably from the 1990's, when Russia was seriously flooded with heroin, and even little kids were taking it. Since then, things have calmed down a lot.
Anyway, fake or not, this video is really freaking out a lot of people who think they are watching an 8 year old boy die from shooting heroin (And maybe they are, who knows?). It's in competition as one of the worst videos on the Net. This video doesn't really bother me because it's not violent. I just tell myself that the kid is going to sleep and not dying, and then everything's OK. Of course it's troubling to watch little boys shooting up.
Unfortunately, the only copy I could find has this stupid semi-literate written dialogue crap at the beginning, written by the moron who runs the King of Cordia's Den website. He's the one who made this video, and my video-editing skills are not sufficient to get rid of his ads and lame illiterate copy in the video.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Latest Scary Marijuana-Brain Damage Study
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.
Updated October 24:
I already talked about this study in a previous post, but it's time to look into it again, as it is continuing to get a lot of publicity.
Study Strengthens Marijuana Brain Damage Case is the title of the accompanying headline.
Marijuana users who had smoked more than 5 joints a day (average of 11 joints a day) for more than 10 years (average use of 20 years) were tested.
They found that there was shrinkage in the amygdala and the hippocampus related to how much cannabis the person used.
The shrinkage was not large in either structure. The damage is described as "equivalent to mild traumatic brain injury or premature aging." The article:
This study was done by Nadia Solowij out of Australia. For whatever reason, every single study done by Solowij and colleagues seems to find pretty serious brain damage.
This study is pretty scary, but so far there have been four other studies of heavy cannabis users that did not find damage to the hippocampus or the amygdala.
However, four other studies found no hippocampal damage from cannabis. An MRI study from 2005 of very heavy cannabis users who had used cannabis on average of 20,100 times found no damage to the hippocampus at all. A study of cannabis-using young adults from 2006 found no damage to the hippocampus, or to any other structure. And a third study also found no hippocampal damage.
The study of users from 2006 also found no damage to the amygdala. This study actually found that the hippocampus-amygdala was 5% larger in the cannabis users than in the non-users, but the difference was not thought to be significant.
So there you have it. There are some pretty scary new findings coming out about cannabis and damage to the limbic system, but things are still far from proven. The single study so hyped by the media nowadays has already been contradicted by four negative studies. You would think that the media might have noted that. You would think wrong.
The road forward? More studies, I guess. You could always try smoking less than five joints a day too, just to be on the safe side.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Updated October 24:
I already talked about this study in a previous post, but it's time to look into it again, as it is continuing to get a lot of publicity.
Study Strengthens Marijuana Brain Damage Case is the title of the accompanying headline.
Marijuana users who had smoked more than 5 joints a day (average of 11 joints a day) for more than 10 years (average use of 20 years) were tested.
They found that there was shrinkage in the amygdala and the hippocampus related to how much cannabis the person used.
The shrinkage was not large in either structure. The damage is described as "equivalent to mild traumatic brain injury or premature aging." The article:
Doctors have known for years there is nothing "soft" about the drug cannabis. Professor Jon Currie is the director of addiction medicine at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne.It's also equivalent to drinking over 2 drinks per day. It's equivalent to severe stress. It's equivalent to having PTSD. It's equivalent to all sorts of stuff.
"This is a very exciting study because it proves for the first time what we have been really worried out. That brain problems are real and that people who smoke cannabis over a long term do get problems." he said.
This study was done by Nadia Solowij out of Australia. For whatever reason, every single study done by Solowij and colleagues seems to find pretty serious brain damage.
This study is pretty scary, but so far there have been four other studies of heavy cannabis users that did not find damage to the hippocampus or the amygdala.
However, four other studies found no hippocampal damage from cannabis. An MRI study from 2005 of very heavy cannabis users who had used cannabis on average of 20,100 times found no damage to the hippocampus at all. A study of cannabis-using young adults from 2006 found no damage to the hippocampus, or to any other structure. And a third study also found no hippocampal damage.
The study of users from 2006 also found no damage to the amygdala. This study actually found that the hippocampus-amygdala was 5% larger in the cannabis users than in the non-users, but the difference was not thought to be significant.
So there you have it. There are some pretty scary new findings coming out about cannabis and damage to the limbic system, but things are still far from proven. The single study so hyped by the media nowadays has already been contradicted by four negative studies. You would think that the media might have noted that. You would think wrong.
The road forward? More studies, I guess. You could always try smoking less than five joints a day too, just to be on the safe side.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Cannabis, Teens and Schizophrenia
I received a mail today from someone who attended an interesting conference in the Midwest.
At a Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Conference today in Omaha, Nebraska, Dr. Frederick Frese, who is the Coordinator of the Summit County Recovery Project and Assistant Prof of Psychology in Clinical Psychology at NEOUCOM and Case Western Reserve U, and on the Board of Trustees for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, gave a session on teenage cannabis use and schizophrenia.
He has been a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic for 40 years.
Frese stated that use of cannabis between the ages of 15 and 18 in persons who have a variant allele of the COMT gene will lead to an almost certain psychotic break by the age of 25. He said it's because of the formative time that the brain is in during those years, in combination with that certain allele, together with cannabis use.
He said that if you have do not have the variant allele, no problem. Frese is so concerned about this that he and his team are going to start setting up genetic testing booths for kids at rock concerts because of the very real danger that the studies show exist.
I applaud Dr. Frese for the very real efforts he is taking to try to prevent schizophrenia in vulnerable youth.
I am dubious about how many kids this will save. The rate of schizophrenia has not gone up since the cannabis era began. This suggests that use of cannabis if anything will cause schizophrenia to occur sooner than it would otherwise occur, and it would occur anyway, just later.
The number of folks with this variant allele is high in absolute numbers, and many of them use MJ and don't get schizophrenia. But it does cause a 10 times elevated risk. I think that Frese is wrong to say that it's almost certain that these kids will get schizophrenia by 25 after smoking one jay between ages 15-18.
As I've said before on this blog, I have known 1000's of cannabis users over my lifetime, many heavy users. The number who went on develop schizophrenia? Zero. This is why this whole subject makes me yawn.
I wish Frese good luck with his experiment though. Ideally, we could construct a good experiment this way. We could follow kids with the variant allele who wait til 19 to start MJ (Is this protective?) or avoid it period, with another group who did not avoid cannabis and see how many of each develop schiz and at what ages.
Tell the truth, I am quite concerned about use of cannabis by minors. I wish they would not do it. Period. Wait til you're an adult!
I have OCD (another, though vastly less devastating, mental illness) and I have found that cannabis is actually a superb psychiatric drug for this illness. It works better than almost any med I have ever taken for this (The drugs work great at high doses, but nuke my sex drive, so what good are they?), and I have suffered for 26 yrs.
No clinician believes me when I tell them this, all insist that pot makes you mentally ill or worsens all mental illness or caused my problem in the first place (The gall of them!?), and all try to steer me to drug treatment or drug counseling when I tell them I use. I'm really getting tired of this shit. I'm 50 years old and I'm being treated like a child.
I have some opinions about the mental health profession, but in general they are extremely low. For such a bunch of super-smart people, there sure is a lot of bullshit groupthink, scaredy-cat thinking and just general lack of an empirical outlook.
At a Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Conference today in Omaha, Nebraska, Dr. Frederick Frese, who is the Coordinator of the Summit County Recovery Project and Assistant Prof of Psychology in Clinical Psychology at NEOUCOM and Case Western Reserve U, and on the Board of Trustees for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, gave a session on teenage cannabis use and schizophrenia.
He has been a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic for 40 years.
Frese stated that use of cannabis between the ages of 15 and 18 in persons who have a variant allele of the COMT gene will lead to an almost certain psychotic break by the age of 25. He said it's because of the formative time that the brain is in during those years, in combination with that certain allele, together with cannabis use.
He said that if you have do not have the variant allele, no problem. Frese is so concerned about this that he and his team are going to start setting up genetic testing booths for kids at rock concerts because of the very real danger that the studies show exist.
I applaud Dr. Frese for the very real efforts he is taking to try to prevent schizophrenia in vulnerable youth.
I am dubious about how many kids this will save. The rate of schizophrenia has not gone up since the cannabis era began. This suggests that use of cannabis if anything will cause schizophrenia to occur sooner than it would otherwise occur, and it would occur anyway, just later.
The number of folks with this variant allele is high in absolute numbers, and many of them use MJ and don't get schizophrenia. But it does cause a 10 times elevated risk. I think that Frese is wrong to say that it's almost certain that these kids will get schizophrenia by 25 after smoking one jay between ages 15-18.
As I've said before on this blog, I have known 1000's of cannabis users over my lifetime, many heavy users. The number who went on develop schizophrenia? Zero. This is why this whole subject makes me yawn.
I wish Frese good luck with his experiment though. Ideally, we could construct a good experiment this way. We could follow kids with the variant allele who wait til 19 to start MJ (Is this protective?) or avoid it period, with another group who did not avoid cannabis and see how many of each develop schiz and at what ages.
Tell the truth, I am quite concerned about use of cannabis by minors. I wish they would not do it. Period. Wait til you're an adult!
I have OCD (another, though vastly less devastating, mental illness) and I have found that cannabis is actually a superb psychiatric drug for this illness. It works better than almost any med I have ever taken for this (The drugs work great at high doses, but nuke my sex drive, so what good are they?), and I have suffered for 26 yrs.
No clinician believes me when I tell them this, all insist that pot makes you mentally ill or worsens all mental illness or caused my problem in the first place (The gall of them!?), and all try to steer me to drug treatment or drug counseling when I tell them I use. I'm really getting tired of this shit. I'm 50 years old and I'm being treated like a child.
I have some opinions about the mental health profession, but in general they are extremely low. For such a bunch of super-smart people, there sure is a lot of bullshit groupthink, scaredy-cat thinking and just general lack of an empirical outlook.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Cannabis Is Good For You
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.
Updated August 23:
Well, not necessarily in general, but if you are a regular methamphetamine user, there is a suggestion that you get less, not more, brain damage, or cognitive impairment (whichever it was) if you concurrently use cannabis than if you use methamphetamine only. The fact that there is a drug that gets you high that might actually be protective of brain damage in some cases is downright fascinating.
Keep in mind that this study found only a trend, and did not prove that cannabis protected against the damage caused by meth use. However, if you read the study, there was a linear trend that showed that the meth + cannabis users had scores intermediate to the controls (no drugs) and meth only groups.
The meth only group scored worst, the controls scored best, and there was a trend for the meth + cannabis group to score intermediate. The trend was not significant enough at the .05 level to be probative, but there was a suggestive trend towards better scores if meth users used cannabis also.
What was found was only cognitive impairment, or worse scores on a test, but with meth use, at some level, say 1/2 gram a day for 1 1/2 years, there is definitely brain damage, and it does not completely clear up with abstention.
There is anecdotal evidence for permanent damage after only 2-3 weeks of very heavy use, but it's not proven. We don't yet know when structural damage to the brain due to meth use begins. Meth can probably be used up to a dozen times or so in a lifetime with no problems, but after that, all bets are off.
If anyone has some good data on meth and brain damage, please comment or email me the links.
For a widely-praised review of whether or not cannabis causes brain damage, see here.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Updated August 23:
Well, not necessarily in general, but if you are a regular methamphetamine user, there is a suggestion that you get less, not more, brain damage, or cognitive impairment (whichever it was) if you concurrently use cannabis than if you use methamphetamine only. The fact that there is a drug that gets you high that might actually be protective of brain damage in some cases is downright fascinating.
Keep in mind that this study found only a trend, and did not prove that cannabis protected against the damage caused by meth use. However, if you read the study, there was a linear trend that showed that the meth + cannabis users had scores intermediate to the controls (no drugs) and meth only groups.
The meth only group scored worst, the controls scored best, and there was a trend for the meth + cannabis group to score intermediate. The trend was not significant enough at the .05 level to be probative, but there was a suggestive trend towards better scores if meth users used cannabis also.
What was found was only cognitive impairment, or worse scores on a test, but with meth use, at some level, say 1/2 gram a day for 1 1/2 years, there is definitely brain damage, and it does not completely clear up with abstention.
There is anecdotal evidence for permanent damage after only 2-3 weeks of very heavy use, but it's not proven. We don't yet know when structural damage to the brain due to meth use begins. Meth can probably be used up to a dozen times or so in a lifetime with no problems, but after that, all bets are off.
If anyone has some good data on meth and brain damage, please comment or email me the links.
For a widely-praised review of whether or not cannabis causes brain damage, see here.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Cannabis and Brain Damage: Cannabis Compared to Other Drugs
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.
Updated August 23:
The original post in its native form was far too long, so I broke it up into seven different posts, in addition to this post. The separate sections are listed below.
The original post, what is left of it, is here.
For an examination of the evidence of whether or not cannabis causes actual structural damage to brain cells, axons or dendrites, see here.
For an analysis of neuropsychological batteries of cannabis users to determine whether or not they suffer brain damage, see here.
For an analysis of EEG testing of cannabis users to discover evidence of brain damage, see here.
For an analysis of studies looking at cerebral blood flow in cannabis users, see here.
For an admittedly impressionistic analysis of whether or not cannabis causes schizotypal symptoms in users, see here.
For a summary of the findings of cannabis and brain damage, see here.
LSD and psilocybin, while not causing permanent brain damage (that we know of so far), can cause HPPD (Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder), a long-term perceptual disturbance of unknown etiology.
I have HPPD myself from using hallucinogens about 40 times, but "suffering" from HPPD once again is an interesting concept, at least in my case.
All I get are brighter colors, mostly in neon signs and store displays, and only at certain times. Maybe lots of people would love to have this effect, as the world looks so much better this way. I called up an ophthalmologist about it and he laughed me off the phone, saying he doesn't treat people whose colors improve. It is only my continuing neurosis that causes me to view these changes as frightening instead of integrating them.
LSD does have a deleterious effect on the visual system of the brain - it is hypotoxic to that area in lab animals, for instance, birds - but it doesn't cause any generalized brain damage at all that we know of, and we have been studying LSD's effects on the brain for about 50 years or so now.
LSD does cause reductions in 5-HT2 receptors on serotonin neurons. But this is a case of these receptors retreating back into the cell due to LSD's assault on those receptors. After about a week, the receptors to poke back out of the cell again.
The most recent evidence also indicates that psilocybin (mushrooms) and mescaline (peyote) also do not cause any generalized brain damage, although psilocybin can cause HPPD. Due to the risks of HPPD, this blog unfortunately does not recommend that anyone use LSD or psilocybin even one time, unless maybe if you are dying.
Ecstasy (MDMA) produces comparatively dramatic harm to the brain after only a handful of doses (2-10 doses), with the effects increasing with continued use. The drug causes degeneration of serotonergic axonal terminals, which afterwards do not grow back correctly, if at all.
There are suggestions that there may be hippocampal damage. On intelligence tests there are deficits in working memory, declining vocabulary, impairments in verbal learning, associative learning and attention and increased distraction. There also seem to be some mood changes.
Perfusion deficits and increased delta waves on EEG have also been found, but the same study did not find these in cannabis users. Impairments were also found in the ability to drive a car in Ecstasy users, even after they were abstinent.
However, a recent study found no persistent effects from one dose of Ecstasy.
Therefore, it appears that using Ecstasy one time is possibly safe. However, taking Ecstasy as few as an average of 3.2 times causes noticeable damage in verbal memory. Ecstasy should be taken no more than once in a lifetime, if at all.
Evidence strongly suggests that the heavy use of PCP, ketamine and DXM may cause permanent brain damage and can often cause schizophrenia-like symptoms which may be related to that damage. The theorized damage involves the vacuolization of neurons (basically a hollowing out and death of the neuron) in various parts of the brain.
The evidence comes from rat studies and the dosages have been criticized, but humans are far more sensitive to the effects of dissociatives than rats are, so the differential doses are probably about right.
The rat evidence has now been challenged by monkey studies, so the matter is far from settled. But until it is, extreme caution, if not outright avoidance, seems to be the best policy for these drugs.
PCP can probably be used up to a dozen or so times in life with no permanent damage. Beyond that, things get a lot touchier. Heavy users show an extremely high rate of schizophrenic and psychotic symptoms, along with symptoms of brain damage. There seems to be some recovery with abstinence, but full recovery is by no means assured.
Evidence indicates that ketamine can be used at least once with no permanent consequences at all to the brain. Beyond that, it is up in the air. Ketamine can surely be used at least a dozen times with no risks to the brain. Beyond that, things get hazier.
Heavy DXM users have reported a very high rate of psychosis and schizophrenia-like symptoms, along with symptoms of organic brain damage. Users should approach DXM use with caution, and heavy use should be ruled out.
Heavy methamphetamine use has been proven to cause permanent damage to dopaminergic systems, especially in the striatum, caudate and putamen (at 1/2 gram a day, 5 days a week, and 2 years of use). Studies have also shown degeneration of axons on serotonergic neurons and loss (cell death) of up to 15% of the neurons of the hippocampus with heavy use.
In the study above, there was some recovery of the dopaminergic system with abstinence, but it was only partial. Meth can probably be used a dozen or so times without any permanent damage. Beyond that, no guarantees. There is some suggestive evidence of chronic psychosis, depression and anxiety directly related to heavy methamphetamine use (over 10 years of heavy use).
Impairments in learning, processing speed, and working memory, along with delayed recall, are found in meth users. Brain dysfunction is often readily apparent in heavy meth users. This is one category of drug user, in contrast to most other drug users, that does sometimes appear "fried". Much of this "fried" appearance seems to clear up with abstinence.
Methamphetamine can probably be used up to a dozen times or so in moderation without any permanent consequences to the brain. Nevertheless, some users have reported permanent effects from only 2-3 weeks of very heavy use. Meth is nasty stuff, and it's best to keep away from it.
Heavy drinking can depress neurons for up to two years. With continued heavy drinking, at some point, there is organic damage, which in many cases is permanent, although there is often significant recovery with abstinence. The case of the "wethead" and "dry drunk", the former alcoholic who is still damaged, psychologically or cognitively, is well known.
Heavy use of barbiturates over many years causes a damage syndrome that looks like chronic alcoholism and that does not completely recover with abstinence.
Even chronic Valium use causes long-term EEG changes of unknown significance.
Sniffing glue has been proven to be possibly the worst thing you can do to your brain short of putting a bullet in it, and the effects do not recover completely with abstinence.
Cocaine, unfortunately, seems to be capable of causing brain damage with as few as 11 doses (constriction of vessels in the brain). At three years of using several times a week, there is slowing on the P300 event related potentials test, that may not recover fully with abstinence.
Recent studies have also shown that chronic heavy cocaine use causes reductions in gray matter in various parts of the brain. This means that heavy cocaine use causes an actual loss of brain cells in parts of the brain. It may also cause white matter reductions, which means a loss of connections in the brain.
There are also impairments in attention, learning, memory, reaction time and cognitive flexibility in cocaine users. It is not known whether these clear up with abstinence.
This blog recommends that lifetime use of cocaine be limited to 10 times or less. Even there, there is a slight risk of sudden death due to perturbations in the heart's electrical rhythms. These perturbations can cause a sudden heart attack or even possibly a stroke. Vasoconstriction is probably involved.
In many of the above cases, there is some recovery with abstinence, but often not to the previous level.
Experimental use of PCP, ketamine, cocaine and methamphetamine (use up to a dozen or so times for each one) probably does not cause significant permanent damage. Beyond that, you play with matches.
Compared to other drugs of abuse, such as Ecstasy, PCP, Ketamine, DXM, cocaine, methamphetamine and alcohol, the effects of cannabis on the brain are dramatically less deleterious.
In terms of its effects on the brain for heavy users, cannabis is surely by far least damaging intoxicant of them all, for what that is worth.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Updated August 23:
The original post in its native form was far too long, so I broke it up into seven different posts, in addition to this post. The separate sections are listed below.
The original post, what is left of it, is here.
For an examination of the evidence of whether or not cannabis causes actual structural damage to brain cells, axons or dendrites, see here.
For an analysis of neuropsychological batteries of cannabis users to determine whether or not they suffer brain damage, see here.
For an analysis of EEG testing of cannabis users to discover evidence of brain damage, see here.
For an analysis of studies looking at cerebral blood flow in cannabis users, see here.
For an admittedly impressionistic analysis of whether or not cannabis causes schizotypal symptoms in users, see here.
For a summary of the findings of cannabis and brain damage, see here.
LSD and psilocybin, while not causing permanent brain damage (that we know of so far), can cause HPPD (Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder), a long-term perceptual disturbance of unknown etiology.
I have HPPD myself from using hallucinogens about 40 times, but "suffering" from HPPD once again is an interesting concept, at least in my case.
All I get are brighter colors, mostly in neon signs and store displays, and only at certain times. Maybe lots of people would love to have this effect, as the world looks so much better this way. I called up an ophthalmologist about it and he laughed me off the phone, saying he doesn't treat people whose colors improve. It is only my continuing neurosis that causes me to view these changes as frightening instead of integrating them.
LSD does have a deleterious effect on the visual system of the brain - it is hypotoxic to that area in lab animals, for instance, birds - but it doesn't cause any generalized brain damage at all that we know of, and we have been studying LSD's effects on the brain for about 50 years or so now.
LSD does cause reductions in 5-HT2 receptors on serotonin neurons. But this is a case of these receptors retreating back into the cell due to LSD's assault on those receptors. After about a week, the receptors to poke back out of the cell again.
The most recent evidence also indicates that psilocybin (mushrooms) and mescaline (peyote) also do not cause any generalized brain damage, although psilocybin can cause HPPD. Due to the risks of HPPD, this blog unfortunately does not recommend that anyone use LSD or psilocybin even one time, unless maybe if you are dying.
Ecstasy (MDMA) produces comparatively dramatic harm to the brain after only a handful of doses (2-10 doses), with the effects increasing with continued use. The drug causes degeneration of serotonergic axonal terminals, which afterwards do not grow back correctly, if at all.
There are suggestions that there may be hippocampal damage. On intelligence tests there are deficits in working memory, declining vocabulary, impairments in verbal learning, associative learning and attention and increased distraction. There also seem to be some mood changes.
Perfusion deficits and increased delta waves on EEG have also been found, but the same study did not find these in cannabis users. Impairments were also found in the ability to drive a car in Ecstasy users, even after they were abstinent.
However, a recent study found no persistent effects from one dose of Ecstasy.
Therefore, it appears that using Ecstasy one time is possibly safe. However, taking Ecstasy as few as an average of 3.2 times causes noticeable damage in verbal memory. Ecstasy should be taken no more than once in a lifetime, if at all.
Evidence strongly suggests that the heavy use of PCP, ketamine and DXM may cause permanent brain damage and can often cause schizophrenia-like symptoms which may be related to that damage. The theorized damage involves the vacuolization of neurons (basically a hollowing out and death of the neuron) in various parts of the brain.
The evidence comes from rat studies and the dosages have been criticized, but humans are far more sensitive to the effects of dissociatives than rats are, so the differential doses are probably about right.
The rat evidence has now been challenged by monkey studies, so the matter is far from settled. But until it is, extreme caution, if not outright avoidance, seems to be the best policy for these drugs.
PCP can probably be used up to a dozen or so times in life with no permanent damage. Beyond that, things get a lot touchier. Heavy users show an extremely high rate of schizophrenic and psychotic symptoms, along with symptoms of brain damage. There seems to be some recovery with abstinence, but full recovery is by no means assured.
Evidence indicates that ketamine can be used at least once with no permanent consequences at all to the brain. Beyond that, it is up in the air. Ketamine can surely be used at least a dozen times with no risks to the brain. Beyond that, things get hazier.
Heavy DXM users have reported a very high rate of psychosis and schizophrenia-like symptoms, along with symptoms of organic brain damage. Users should approach DXM use with caution, and heavy use should be ruled out.
Heavy methamphetamine use has been proven to cause permanent damage to dopaminergic systems, especially in the striatum, caudate and putamen (at 1/2 gram a day, 5 days a week, and 2 years of use). Studies have also shown degeneration of axons on serotonergic neurons and loss (cell death) of up to 15% of the neurons of the hippocampus with heavy use.
In the study above, there was some recovery of the dopaminergic system with abstinence, but it was only partial. Meth can probably be used a dozen or so times without any permanent damage. Beyond that, no guarantees. There is some suggestive evidence of chronic psychosis, depression and anxiety directly related to heavy methamphetamine use (over 10 years of heavy use).
Impairments in learning, processing speed, and working memory, along with delayed recall, are found in meth users. Brain dysfunction is often readily apparent in heavy meth users. This is one category of drug user, in contrast to most other drug users, that does sometimes appear "fried". Much of this "fried" appearance seems to clear up with abstinence.
Methamphetamine can probably be used up to a dozen times or so in moderation without any permanent consequences to the brain. Nevertheless, some users have reported permanent effects from only 2-3 weeks of very heavy use. Meth is nasty stuff, and it's best to keep away from it.
Heavy drinking can depress neurons for up to two years. With continued heavy drinking, at some point, there is organic damage, which in many cases is permanent, although there is often significant recovery with abstinence. The case of the "wethead" and "dry drunk", the former alcoholic who is still damaged, psychologically or cognitively, is well known.
Heavy use of barbiturates over many years causes a damage syndrome that looks like chronic alcoholism and that does not completely recover with abstinence.
Even chronic Valium use causes long-term EEG changes of unknown significance.
Sniffing glue has been proven to be possibly the worst thing you can do to your brain short of putting a bullet in it, and the effects do not recover completely with abstinence.
Cocaine, unfortunately, seems to be capable of causing brain damage with as few as 11 doses (constriction of vessels in the brain). At three years of using several times a week, there is slowing on the P300 event related potentials test, that may not recover fully with abstinence.
Recent studies have also shown that chronic heavy cocaine use causes reductions in gray matter in various parts of the brain. This means that heavy cocaine use causes an actual loss of brain cells in parts of the brain. It may also cause white matter reductions, which means a loss of connections in the brain.
There are also impairments in attention, learning, memory, reaction time and cognitive flexibility in cocaine users. It is not known whether these clear up with abstinence.
This blog recommends that lifetime use of cocaine be limited to 10 times or less. Even there, there is a slight risk of sudden death due to perturbations in the heart's electrical rhythms. These perturbations can cause a sudden heart attack or even possibly a stroke. Vasoconstriction is probably involved.
In many of the above cases, there is some recovery with abstinence, but often not to the previous level.
Experimental use of PCP, ketamine, cocaine and methamphetamine (use up to a dozen or so times for each one) probably does not cause significant permanent damage. Beyond that, you play with matches.
Compared to other drugs of abuse, such as Ecstasy, PCP, Ketamine, DXM, cocaine, methamphetamine and alcohol, the effects of cannabis on the brain are dramatically less deleterious.
In terms of its effects on the brain for heavy users, cannabis is surely by far least damaging intoxicant of them all, for what that is worth.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Cannabis and Brain Damage: Summary
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.
Updated August 23:
The original post in its native form was far too long, so I have decided to break it up into seven different posts, in addition to this post. The separate sections are listed below.
The original post, what is left of it, is here.
For an examination of the evidence of whether or not cannabis causes actual structural damage to brain cells, axons or dendrites, see here.
For an analysis of neuropsychological batteries of cannabis users to determine whether or not they suffer brain damage, see here.
For an analysis of EEG testing of cannabis users to discover evidence of brain damage, see here.
For an analysis of studies looking at cerebral blood flow in cannabis users, see here.
For an admittedly impressionistic analysis of whether or not cannabis causes schizotypal symptoms in users, see here.
For a summary comparing the effects of cannabis on the brain compared to other drugs, see here.
Original monkey and later rat studies indicating structural brain damage have generally not panned out when conducted in humans, but a recent study from 2008 found damage to the hippocampus and amygdala. The hippocampus findings are contradicted by three earlier studies finding no damage, and the finding on the amygdala was contradicted by an earlier study.
Another study found damage to the corpus callosum in early adolescent users. And another found damaged axons and brain cells in the prefrontal cortex. These findings have not yet been replicated. Yet another study found damage to two areas but improvements in four other areas of the brain. The consequences of this are not known.
At the moment, whether or not cannabis causes structural damage or even improvements to the limbic system, corpus callosum, prefrontal cortex or other areas of the brain is somewhat up in the air.
Neuropsychological studies of long-term users have been somewhat contradictory, but in general have not found significant brain damage, although they did find a "very small effect" on learning and memory. Apparently they did not think it was significant enough to be called brain damage.
New studies show that chronic long-term users perform worse than controls in memory, learning and recall, and the effect worsens as use progresses. These effects last up to one week after the last use. Therefore, daily marijuana users are always going to be somewhat impaired in these areas.
Some EEG studies found some interesting changes in theta waves in users who had used heavily and daily for 15-30 years. The significance of these findings is not yet known; one suggestion that is that the increased theta may be indicative of organic damage. But here again we do not have any clinical correlates of the organic theta change either.
Even this study did not find permanent effects from sporadic or occasional use of marijuana.
Another found problems with screening out external stimuli after five years of use, but it is possible that two attempts to replicate that study may have failed.
A SPECT studies out of Britain showed low CBF in three heavy cannabis users. Another found that low CBF did not clear up in adolescent users even after one month. However, they have been contradicted by two other studies, one showing that the CBF deficits clear up after three months, and another showing increases in CBF as opposed to decreases.
A new study using DTI found damage to the left side of the arcuate fasiculus in adolescent heavy cannabis users. This is one of the most disturbing findings to date, and adds weight to evidence that cannabis should not be used by adolescents, since the arcuate fasiculus is still developing in early adolescence. Nevertheless, no clinical significance has yet been attached to this finding.
But another DTI study looking at the entire brain found no evidence of generalized damage, and if anything, found that teenage cannabis users have less brain atrophy and more brain cells than non-users. We would expect a clinical correlate of this to be more intelligent teenage potheads, but no one is suggesting that.
Unless clinical correlates can be discovered, all findings of damage or enhancement of the brain via marijuana should be viewed with a critical eye.
So the evidence on permanent brain damage from long-term heavy marijuana use is rather contradictory and is still somewhat up in the air.
It looks like cannabis can be used for up to five years, or possibly up to 15 years, even on a daily basis, without any permanent harm to the brain. Beyond that, there may effects, but they appear to be more subtle than profound.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Updated August 23:
The original post in its native form was far too long, so I have decided to break it up into seven different posts, in addition to this post. The separate sections are listed below.
The original post, what is left of it, is here.
For an examination of the evidence of whether or not cannabis causes actual structural damage to brain cells, axons or dendrites, see here.
For an analysis of neuropsychological batteries of cannabis users to determine whether or not they suffer brain damage, see here.
For an analysis of EEG testing of cannabis users to discover evidence of brain damage, see here.
For an analysis of studies looking at cerebral blood flow in cannabis users, see here.
For an admittedly impressionistic analysis of whether or not cannabis causes schizotypal symptoms in users, see here.
For a summary comparing the effects of cannabis on the brain compared to other drugs, see here.
Original monkey and later rat studies indicating structural brain damage have generally not panned out when conducted in humans, but a recent study from 2008 found damage to the hippocampus and amygdala. The hippocampus findings are contradicted by three earlier studies finding no damage, and the finding on the amygdala was contradicted by an earlier study.
Another study found damage to the corpus callosum in early adolescent users. And another found damaged axons and brain cells in the prefrontal cortex. These findings have not yet been replicated. Yet another study found damage to two areas but improvements in four other areas of the brain. The consequences of this are not known.
At the moment, whether or not cannabis causes structural damage or even improvements to the limbic system, corpus callosum, prefrontal cortex or other areas of the brain is somewhat up in the air.
Neuropsychological studies of long-term users have been somewhat contradictory, but in general have not found significant brain damage, although they did find a "very small effect" on learning and memory. Apparently they did not think it was significant enough to be called brain damage.
New studies show that chronic long-term users perform worse than controls in memory, learning and recall, and the effect worsens as use progresses. These effects last up to one week after the last use. Therefore, daily marijuana users are always going to be somewhat impaired in these areas.
Some EEG studies found some interesting changes in theta waves in users who had used heavily and daily for 15-30 years. The significance of these findings is not yet known; one suggestion that is that the increased theta may be indicative of organic damage. But here again we do not have any clinical correlates of the organic theta change either.
Even this study did not find permanent effects from sporadic or occasional use of marijuana.
Another found problems with screening out external stimuli after five years of use, but it is possible that two attempts to replicate that study may have failed.
A SPECT studies out of Britain showed low CBF in three heavy cannabis users. Another found that low CBF did not clear up in adolescent users even after one month. However, they have been contradicted by two other studies, one showing that the CBF deficits clear up after three months, and another showing increases in CBF as opposed to decreases.
A new study using DTI found damage to the left side of the arcuate fasiculus in adolescent heavy cannabis users. This is one of the most disturbing findings to date, and adds weight to evidence that cannabis should not be used by adolescents, since the arcuate fasiculus is still developing in early adolescence. Nevertheless, no clinical significance has yet been attached to this finding.
But another DTI study looking at the entire brain found no evidence of generalized damage, and if anything, found that teenage cannabis users have less brain atrophy and more brain cells than non-users. We would expect a clinical correlate of this to be more intelligent teenage potheads, but no one is suggesting that.
Unless clinical correlates can be discovered, all findings of damage or enhancement of the brain via marijuana should be viewed with a critical eye.
So the evidence on permanent brain damage from long-term heavy marijuana use is rather contradictory and is still somewhat up in the air.
It looks like cannabis can be used for up to five years, or possibly up to 15 years, even on a daily basis, without any permanent harm to the brain. Beyond that, there may effects, but they appear to be more subtle than profound.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
They Were Committing Crimes
And no one ever caught.
Thrillseekerman sold dope for 14 years, and the cops never caught on. He finally quit, and now he's scared to do it again, but the temptation is always there, because he so loved the outlaw dealer life where you never get caught and outsmart the law.
He also loved being a dealer because he loved being a criminal. As a dealer, you can be a criminal without hurting anyone else, so if you have a shred of guilt left, and Thrillseekerman does, it's a great Catholic profession.
I mean, a few months ago, or 10 years ago, Internetman met 15-year-old girls on the Net, and they sent him nude pics without him even asking, and said they wanted to have sex with him right now, but they were too far away.
So what did he do with the pics? Delete them, call the cops and turn himself in, or keep them in an evil secret file to show it to his most evil friends? I bet they are gone now. Internetman is paranoid. Were they illegal?
Internetman went into a chatroom the other night, or was it five years ago? There was a teenage girl in there masturbating on cam, and everyone in the room was watching the fun. Well, she was 13, but she looked like a full-grown to him. The chat room was full, mostly kids but some adults too, both sexes. Was it illegal?
It was seven years ago, or seven weeks ago, or seven months ago, and 14-year-old girls came to talk to Internetman in the chatrooms and ask for cybersex. What's a man to do?
It was a while back, or the other day, or some time ago, or 4-7 years ago, and Internetman did the cybersex thing with them, the 14-yr-olds, the 15-yr-olds, and the 16-yr-olds, and of course the droves of legal-aged women as well, and it was all in good fun.
One of them begged and begged for him to send her porn, so he broke down and sent porn to a 14-yr-old girl. Was that illegal? Now he's paranoid, and he'll never do it again. Or will he? Maybe he better not.
In a chatroom, five days ago, or last year, or five years back, the 17-year-old girl saw he had a cam and asked him to turn it on. Internetman did so. She started whining for him to take his pants off so she could see his stuff, because she had never seen one before. "But I've never seeeeen one before," she whined into Internetman's headphones, but he chickened out again.
Internetman went into these really evil chatrooms, just on a wild dare, and people were all trying to do horrible and illegal stuff in there, men and women of all ages, normal folks and weird. Internetman tried not to do anything illegal. Will he go there again? He doubts it.
Internetman went to this chatroom last year, or eight years ago, or yesterday, and met this guy in Kentucky, a psychopath I guess, who wanted someone to rape his wife. You had to break in, tie her up, rape her, and get away with it.
He described the sex acts he wanted Internetman to engage in with his wife. He said you could not hurt her in any way, and that she would secretly love it. Getting away with it was Internetman's business, and the guy would not call the cops and report the rape.
So Internetman sat there and wondered whether or not he could be a criminal rapist and try to get get away with it, under special circumstances of course in which at least the victim's husband consented, but he chickened out at the end.
Internetman met a girl once on the Net a few weeks ago, or was it seven years ago? She was 17 years and seven months old, and wanted sex right now. She kept demanding and demanding, and she would not knock it off. She was a lesbian, but she wanted to try it with a guy to see what it felt like. Internetman figured it was an evil plot by one of his enemies trying to get him arrested for child molesting.
Good thing he was paranoid, so he never took her up.
The Internet is the most evil place Internetman knows.
You can do just about anything on here, and who knows if it's even legal or what. Where are the cops? What's a cop? There are bulletin boards right now where people are asking for child porn and bragging about their antisocial acts, and Internetman knows where they are. He's been to them, lurking, but he didn't do anything illegal.
Internetman went to chatrooms where sex perverts traded porn pics. Mostly it was fun, but some people sent Internetman really illegal pics without him even asking, and he freaked out and deleted them about as quick as they hit the screen. Was that illegal? Did Internetman commit a crime?
One of his drug addict friends, Killerdude, came over the other day, or was it 22 years ago? He asked Thrillseekerman to be the getaway driver for an armed robbery, and Thrillseekerman considered it, but thank God he didn't do it.
A few months back, or 18 years ago, one of Thrillseekerman's doper friends drove the getaway car for an armed robbery and he told Thrillseekerman all about it.
Then the armed robber himself came over to Thrillseekerman's house with his girlfriend and they sat around and took drugs. He seemed like a smiling psychopath, and those guys are always charming in a way. Later Thrillseekerman called the cops and told them the guy's name, but there was not much they could do.
Last week, or 21 years ago, Thrillseekerman called the cops on his friends and tried to get them busted. Once for selling heroin, because Thrillseekerman thought that was shitty. The other time because Thrillseekerman was mad at his friend who sold pot and wanted to burn the guy.
Dopers work with narcs all the time, mostly for revenge reasons. Most people don't know that. Without dopers to work alongside them, every narc in America would be unemployed.
Once, 11 years ago, or a few weeks back, Thrillseekerman stole Killerdude's car, not to be a criminal or anything, but just because he was furious at him, but he brought it back when the cop's son across the street was going to have him arrested.
One time, it was last month, last year, or it was 20 years ago, and Thrillseekerman drove by a business at 5 AM with a slingshot and blew out a window in a business that because he hated it and it was evil.
Committing street crimes like that, which was actually a revolutionary act in favor of people's power and against the crooked businesses that rip off the people, is one of the biggest rushes that Thrillseekerman knows. You will shake like a leaf. You will shake so hard it will be hard to steer the car after you do it. You will be terrified and thrilled all at the same time, and when you get away with it, there will be no better feeling.
Killerdude came over a while back, or 25 years ago, or the other day, and said he was considering taking an offer to kill some guy, from a woman who was offering big money to have her husband knocked off. So they, Thrillseekerman and Killerdude, sat around for hours blasted out of their minds on dope and talked about whether or not you should murder someone for the money.
They discussed Christianity, as in whether or not a Christian should kill, and whether or not the would-be murder victim deserved it since he was a wife-beater, and Thrillseekerman tried to spy on Killerdude for the cops, but it did not work. Thrillseekerman didn't like the idea of killing for money (even Thrillseekerman had some basic values) and thought his friend was degenerating morally.
They took lots of drugs, Thrillseekerman and Killerdude, while they talked about all this insane and evil stuff. It was last month, or was it 15 years ago?
They sat around for hours at night stoned out of their minds on chemicals, saying, "Yeah! I could play the role of the insane serial killer! I could play that role! I could play any role! I could play as many roles as you could! And that's a lot of roles," as they shook their heads and laughed demoniacally but didn't really consider it, just fantasized about it. About what? Being a serial killer? How many people do that?
It was really weird back in those days, or the other day, or whenever it was, but not too many crimes happened.
Once they got loaded and made some bombs. It was a few months ago, or 13 years ago, or back in the 80's. Thrillseekerman had these antisocial maniac friends, some of whom seemed like they might snap, but Thrillseekerman wasn't worried, and they liked to make bombs, like all maniacs do. It's so fun making illegal bombs. The psycho dudes showed Thrillseekerman how to make bombs, which is so easy it's scary.
Then they took the bombs and blew up this dude's windshield (who deserved it) with a fused time bomb, and they slashed his tires, then they took another bomb, this time sort of a firebomb that shoots up a flame, and threw it on some other guy's lawn (who deserved it), and it burned a hole in the lawn.
Making little bombs is the easiest thing in whole world to do, and every revolutionary and maniac of any age might want to make them and set off them in the street at least, that is if you have the nerve, just to see what an explosion looks like and to piss off the neighbors.
They called themselves a gang and sat on the front porch of Thrillseekerman's house and shot BB pellets and rocks and dirt clods at the neighbors' house (who deserved it) and dared them to call the cops.
The people did call the cops, but the cops hardly cared because they thought Thrillseekerman was doing a civic duty by getting rid of the real criminal (the neighbor) he was attacking. In other words, Thrillseekerman was a public service vigilante ridding the neighborhood of scum as he saw fit.
The cops paid him a visit on the phone, told him to watch it, and told him to spend $10 to repair the door Thrillseekerman had smashed in with a baseball bat after laughing maniacally and running across the street in broad daylight as a joke just so the whole world could see it and to dare them to call the cops. If you're doing a public service crime, do it in broad daylight. It was just the other day, or long, long ago.
Another time Thrillseekerman sneaked into the ladies room to take a crap because the criminal, feral, 13 year old Black youths were in the men's room threatening with their eyes to attack anyone who came in. A woman called the cops, and the detectives threatened to kick Thrillseekerman's ass if he did not confess to a perverted crime he did not commit.
He only wanted to confess to taking a crap, which was the only crime he did. Well, he was also trying to see if he could get away with it, so there was a thrillseeker aspect. The detectives quickly figured out he was not a pervert, but they kept on torturing him anyway and trying to get him to confess. Don't you just love detectives? How many people in the US just confess unless the cops beat the shit out of them?
He was 20 again, or was he 50, or was he 35? He was jogging in the park, and Thrillseekerman met a 12 year old girl he had known from an old job for a long time, and they chatted a bit and smiled and laughed, and then she flat out asked Thrillseekerman to have sex with her, and smiled when she said it, just like that. Not only that, but she was beautiful, brilliant, wise and athletic.
And Thrillseekerman considered being the ultimate criminal that you can be, a child molesting sick evil scumbag piece of dirt, but then he decided against it. There are Lolitas and teenage girls that want it, 12 and up, with adult men, 18-45. And if you do it and get caught, you are going down in the worst way.
It was yesterday, or long ago in another lifetime. A whole crowd of gangsters came in the door. There had just been a gang fight, and people were hurt. The gangsters were underage, some of them, but they used an 18 year old girl to get in the door because they knew Thrillseekerman's fatal weaknesses.
Later there were shots fired 50 yards from his door, and the cops didn't even want to take any witnesses. They never do in gang crimes, and besides, in Greater Tijuana, here in California, there are pro-gang Hispanic spies everywhere.
Thrillseekerman's White, and he claims Norteno, or does he? Or does the whole neighborhood? After all, he lives in a Norteno hood, so everyone more or less claims in a way. Thrillseekerman wears jogging shoes with N on them for a reason, or does he?
Three weeks ago, or nine months ago, or 12 years ago, someone came by and flashed a United Farm Workers shirt (Do you get it?) at Thrillseekerman and asked him to go out with a shotgun and kill some Surenos. Thrillseekerman had to think about it for a bit, because nothing would be so thrilling and dangerous, and Surenos probably deserved it anyway, but thank God he declined.
There were criminal opportunities all over the place for decades, right under your nose, people enticing him here and there to break the law and commit serious crimes, some of them felonies, if only one was psycho enough, and they seemed to dare you and egg you on. In the barrio anyway, no snitching was the rule, so you might even get away with it, but you could still get caught.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Thrillseekerman sold dope for 14 years, and the cops never caught on. He finally quit, and now he's scared to do it again, but the temptation is always there, because he so loved the outlaw dealer life where you never get caught and outsmart the law.
He also loved being a dealer because he loved being a criminal. As a dealer, you can be a criminal without hurting anyone else, so if you have a shred of guilt left, and Thrillseekerman does, it's a great Catholic profession.
I mean, a few months ago, or 10 years ago, Internetman met 15-year-old girls on the Net, and they sent him nude pics without him even asking, and said they wanted to have sex with him right now, but they were too far away.
So what did he do with the pics? Delete them, call the cops and turn himself in, or keep them in an evil secret file to show it to his most evil friends? I bet they are gone now. Internetman is paranoid. Were they illegal?
Internetman went into a chatroom the other night, or was it five years ago? There was a teenage girl in there masturbating on cam, and everyone in the room was watching the fun. Well, she was 13, but she looked like a full-grown to him. The chat room was full, mostly kids but some adults too, both sexes. Was it illegal?
It was seven years ago, or seven weeks ago, or seven months ago, and 14-year-old girls came to talk to Internetman in the chatrooms and ask for cybersex. What's a man to do?
It was a while back, or the other day, or some time ago, or 4-7 years ago, and Internetman did the cybersex thing with them, the 14-yr-olds, the 15-yr-olds, and the 16-yr-olds, and of course the droves of legal-aged women as well, and it was all in good fun.
One of them begged and begged for him to send her porn, so he broke down and sent porn to a 14-yr-old girl. Was that illegal? Now he's paranoid, and he'll never do it again. Or will he? Maybe he better not.
In a chatroom, five days ago, or last year, or five years back, the 17-year-old girl saw he had a cam and asked him to turn it on. Internetman did so. She started whining for him to take his pants off so she could see his stuff, because she had never seen one before. "But I've never seeeeen one before," she whined into Internetman's headphones, but he chickened out again.
Internetman went into these really evil chatrooms, just on a wild dare, and people were all trying to do horrible and illegal stuff in there, men and women of all ages, normal folks and weird. Internetman tried not to do anything illegal. Will he go there again? He doubts it.
Internetman went to this chatroom last year, or eight years ago, or yesterday, and met this guy in Kentucky, a psychopath I guess, who wanted someone to rape his wife. You had to break in, tie her up, rape her, and get away with it.
He described the sex acts he wanted Internetman to engage in with his wife. He said you could not hurt her in any way, and that she would secretly love it. Getting away with it was Internetman's business, and the guy would not call the cops and report the rape.
So Internetman sat there and wondered whether or not he could be a criminal rapist and try to get get away with it, under special circumstances of course in which at least the victim's husband consented, but he chickened out at the end.
Internetman met a girl once on the Net a few weeks ago, or was it seven years ago? She was 17 years and seven months old, and wanted sex right now. She kept demanding and demanding, and she would not knock it off. She was a lesbian, but she wanted to try it with a guy to see what it felt like. Internetman figured it was an evil plot by one of his enemies trying to get him arrested for child molesting.
Good thing he was paranoid, so he never took her up.
The Internet is the most evil place Internetman knows.
You can do just about anything on here, and who knows if it's even legal or what. Where are the cops? What's a cop? There are bulletin boards right now where people are asking for child porn and bragging about their antisocial acts, and Internetman knows where they are. He's been to them, lurking, but he didn't do anything illegal.
Internetman went to chatrooms where sex perverts traded porn pics. Mostly it was fun, but some people sent Internetman really illegal pics without him even asking, and he freaked out and deleted them about as quick as they hit the screen. Was that illegal? Did Internetman commit a crime?
One of his drug addict friends, Killerdude, came over the other day, or was it 22 years ago? He asked Thrillseekerman to be the getaway driver for an armed robbery, and Thrillseekerman considered it, but thank God he didn't do it.
A few months back, or 18 years ago, one of Thrillseekerman's doper friends drove the getaway car for an armed robbery and he told Thrillseekerman all about it.
Then the armed robber himself came over to Thrillseekerman's house with his girlfriend and they sat around and took drugs. He seemed like a smiling psychopath, and those guys are always charming in a way. Later Thrillseekerman called the cops and told them the guy's name, but there was not much they could do.
Last week, or 21 years ago, Thrillseekerman called the cops on his friends and tried to get them busted. Once for selling heroin, because Thrillseekerman thought that was shitty. The other time because Thrillseekerman was mad at his friend who sold pot and wanted to burn the guy.
Dopers work with narcs all the time, mostly for revenge reasons. Most people don't know that. Without dopers to work alongside them, every narc in America would be unemployed.
Once, 11 years ago, or a few weeks back, Thrillseekerman stole Killerdude's car, not to be a criminal or anything, but just because he was furious at him, but he brought it back when the cop's son across the street was going to have him arrested.
One time, it was last month, last year, or it was 20 years ago, and Thrillseekerman drove by a business at 5 AM with a slingshot and blew out a window in a business that because he hated it and it was evil.
Committing street crimes like that, which was actually a revolutionary act in favor of people's power and against the crooked businesses that rip off the people, is one of the biggest rushes that Thrillseekerman knows. You will shake like a leaf. You will shake so hard it will be hard to steer the car after you do it. You will be terrified and thrilled all at the same time, and when you get away with it, there will be no better feeling.
Killerdude came over a while back, or 25 years ago, or the other day, and said he was considering taking an offer to kill some guy, from a woman who was offering big money to have her husband knocked off. So they, Thrillseekerman and Killerdude, sat around for hours blasted out of their minds on dope and talked about whether or not you should murder someone for the money.
They discussed Christianity, as in whether or not a Christian should kill, and whether or not the would-be murder victim deserved it since he was a wife-beater, and Thrillseekerman tried to spy on Killerdude for the cops, but it did not work. Thrillseekerman didn't like the idea of killing for money (even Thrillseekerman had some basic values) and thought his friend was degenerating morally.
They took lots of drugs, Thrillseekerman and Killerdude, while they talked about all this insane and evil stuff. It was last month, or was it 15 years ago?
They sat around for hours at night stoned out of their minds on chemicals, saying, "Yeah! I could play the role of the insane serial killer! I could play that role! I could play any role! I could play as many roles as you could! And that's a lot of roles," as they shook their heads and laughed demoniacally but didn't really consider it, just fantasized about it. About what? Being a serial killer? How many people do that?
It was really weird back in those days, or the other day, or whenever it was, but not too many crimes happened.
Once they got loaded and made some bombs. It was a few months ago, or 13 years ago, or back in the 80's. Thrillseekerman had these antisocial maniac friends, some of whom seemed like they might snap, but Thrillseekerman wasn't worried, and they liked to make bombs, like all maniacs do. It's so fun making illegal bombs. The psycho dudes showed Thrillseekerman how to make bombs, which is so easy it's scary.
Then they took the bombs and blew up this dude's windshield (who deserved it) with a fused time bomb, and they slashed his tires, then they took another bomb, this time sort of a firebomb that shoots up a flame, and threw it on some other guy's lawn (who deserved it), and it burned a hole in the lawn.
Making little bombs is the easiest thing in whole world to do, and every revolutionary and maniac of any age might want to make them and set off them in the street at least, that is if you have the nerve, just to see what an explosion looks like and to piss off the neighbors.
They called themselves a gang and sat on the front porch of Thrillseekerman's house and shot BB pellets and rocks and dirt clods at the neighbors' house (who deserved it) and dared them to call the cops.
The people did call the cops, but the cops hardly cared because they thought Thrillseekerman was doing a civic duty by getting rid of the real criminal (the neighbor) he was attacking. In other words, Thrillseekerman was a public service vigilante ridding the neighborhood of scum as he saw fit.
The cops paid him a visit on the phone, told him to watch it, and told him to spend $10 to repair the door Thrillseekerman had smashed in with a baseball bat after laughing maniacally and running across the street in broad daylight as a joke just so the whole world could see it and to dare them to call the cops. If you're doing a public service crime, do it in broad daylight. It was just the other day, or long, long ago.
Another time Thrillseekerman sneaked into the ladies room to take a crap because the criminal, feral, 13 year old Black youths were in the men's room threatening with their eyes to attack anyone who came in. A woman called the cops, and the detectives threatened to kick Thrillseekerman's ass if he did not confess to a perverted crime he did not commit.
He only wanted to confess to taking a crap, which was the only crime he did. Well, he was also trying to see if he could get away with it, so there was a thrillseeker aspect. The detectives quickly figured out he was not a pervert, but they kept on torturing him anyway and trying to get him to confess. Don't you just love detectives? How many people in the US just confess unless the cops beat the shit out of them?
He was 20 again, or was he 50, or was he 35? He was jogging in the park, and Thrillseekerman met a 12 year old girl he had known from an old job for a long time, and they chatted a bit and smiled and laughed, and then she flat out asked Thrillseekerman to have sex with her, and smiled when she said it, just like that. Not only that, but she was beautiful, brilliant, wise and athletic.
And Thrillseekerman considered being the ultimate criminal that you can be, a child molesting sick evil scumbag piece of dirt, but then he decided against it. There are Lolitas and teenage girls that want it, 12 and up, with adult men, 18-45. And if you do it and get caught, you are going down in the worst way.
It was yesterday, or long ago in another lifetime. A whole crowd of gangsters came in the door. There had just been a gang fight, and people were hurt. The gangsters were underage, some of them, but they used an 18 year old girl to get in the door because they knew Thrillseekerman's fatal weaknesses.
Later there were shots fired 50 yards from his door, and the cops didn't even want to take any witnesses. They never do in gang crimes, and besides, in Greater Tijuana, here in California, there are pro-gang Hispanic spies everywhere.
Thrillseekerman's White, and he claims Norteno, or does he? Or does the whole neighborhood? After all, he lives in a Norteno hood, so everyone more or less claims in a way. Thrillseekerman wears jogging shoes with N on them for a reason, or does he?
Three weeks ago, or nine months ago, or 12 years ago, someone came by and flashed a United Farm Workers shirt (Do you get it?) at Thrillseekerman and asked him to go out with a shotgun and kill some Surenos. Thrillseekerman had to think about it for a bit, because nothing would be so thrilling and dangerous, and Surenos probably deserved it anyway, but thank God he declined.
There were criminal opportunities all over the place for decades, right under your nose, people enticing him here and there to break the law and commit serious crimes, some of them felonies, if only one was psycho enough, and they seemed to dare you and egg you on. In the barrio anyway, no snitching was the rule, so you might even get away with it, but you could still get caught.
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Friday, June 20, 2008
Psilocybin Doesn't Cause Brain Damage
Updated July 7:
Told you so.
Hell, I've only taken it, what, 30 times or so? It never fried me, or at least I don't think so. I never noticed any long-lasting harm after taking this drug. One time, I had bright colors for about six months after I took it. Another time, I got depressed and sat around alone on Saturday night feeling sorry for myself. Next morning, I woke up and was not depressed anymore.
One time, I took some, got in my car, and drove from Los Angeles to the Owens Valley, then turned around and drove home again. I think the whole trip took me about 12-14 hours. You can drive great on the stuff if you have a nice, clear, open road in front of you, and the towering Sierra Nevada sure looks great when you are frying. Plus, the stuff keeps you awake for many hours somehow.
I used to sell these mushrooms, and boy was it fun. I was a student, a schoolteacher, a paralegal and a drug dealer. I would sell quarter pounds and pounds and make insane profits like $300 for an hour's work or so. Plus you get to feel like a spy and feel some real terror when you carry the dope around and do the deal itself.
You get to drive past lots of cops with a car full of dope that could send you to jail for a long time. You look at the cops and just drive right on by like nothing is happening. You carry the dope in a briefcase and dress up like an office worker, or you carry it in an athletic bag and dress up like you're going to gym.
There's nothing like the rush you get being out in public with a car full of felonious dope or a wallet full of tainted drug money.
My friends and I dealt dope in the smart way, and most of us never got caught. We were not all totally White, but most of us were raised in a mostly-White beach town. We dressed up like college kids, office workers, gym enthusiasts, and conformed to White middle class society in every way.
Yet we sold dope right in front of the cops and society's noses for years for years and never got caught. There's a luscious feeling in that.
A friend of mine made so much money selling coke that he bought two homes in San Fransisco, one to store the coke and another to live in. He was so hot I didn't dare even look him up. You don't even want to hang around some super-dealer like that.
I just checked him out and he's resurfaced in Southern California, fit, healthy and fifty, selling real estate. A survivor. I guess he never got caught either. Even my Mom shakes her head in admiration of him. White society always respects someone who can outsmart the cops in a not-too-evil way. Why? It places a premium on not being stupid, and not being caught.
I often wonder if other ethnics share this value.
Sometimes I think that these young Blacks and Hispanics nowadays place a premium on getting caught, and therefore being a moron. This I will never understand.
These Hispanic kids around here are the biggest idiots on Earth. They do dope deals, albeit for small amounts of pot, right out in the open in front of everyone. The seem to take special delight in doing an obvious drug deal right out where anyone can see it happen. I guess it's a macho thing.
White middle class me says it's not a macho thing, it's a stupid thing. No wonder they are always getting hauled in on dope-selling charges. They dress up like gangsters and criminals and then wonder why they get stopped by the cops. Duh.
There really is an art to being a criminal.
All in all, psilocybin is a fun drug. You keep hearing horror stories about this stuff, about people who took too much of it and are mentally ill, or people who took too much and are fried in some way or another. Problem is that there is not the tiniest evidence that this stuff damages your brain, unlike almost other drugs of abuse. Yes, the drugs that make you feel the most insane of all do not do the slightest harm to your brain in any way.
I'm not saying take them every weekend. I haven't taken the stuff in about 21 years, and I'm not sure if I will ever take it again. All those stories floating around about people taking too much hallucinogens need to be taken with a grain of salt. If it's harmless to the brain, how is it supposed to create fried-out acidheads? Answer: it's can't.
Taking these kinds of drugs is one of the most bizarre experiences that one can have on this Earth, though, and you can have some really terrifying bad trips. Psychological harm can occur from traumatic experiences.
By the way, it's not harmful to any other organ in your body either. Plus there are long-lasting positive effects, apparently.
On the other hand, this drug can cause HPPD, so I'd advise against taking it. I have HPPD, but I only have bright colors, and it's really not so bad. You're living in a Technicolor world, and if you just accept it, the world looks a lot better this way.
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Told you so.
Hell, I've only taken it, what, 30 times or so? It never fried me, or at least I don't think so. I never noticed any long-lasting harm after taking this drug. One time, I had bright colors for about six months after I took it. Another time, I got depressed and sat around alone on Saturday night feeling sorry for myself. Next morning, I woke up and was not depressed anymore.
One time, I took some, got in my car, and drove from Los Angeles to the Owens Valley, then turned around and drove home again. I think the whole trip took me about 12-14 hours. You can drive great on the stuff if you have a nice, clear, open road in front of you, and the towering Sierra Nevada sure looks great when you are frying. Plus, the stuff keeps you awake for many hours somehow.
I used to sell these mushrooms, and boy was it fun. I was a student, a schoolteacher, a paralegal and a drug dealer. I would sell quarter pounds and pounds and make insane profits like $300 for an hour's work or so. Plus you get to feel like a spy and feel some real terror when you carry the dope around and do the deal itself.
You get to drive past lots of cops with a car full of dope that could send you to jail for a long time. You look at the cops and just drive right on by like nothing is happening. You carry the dope in a briefcase and dress up like an office worker, or you carry it in an athletic bag and dress up like you're going to gym.
There's nothing like the rush you get being out in public with a car full of felonious dope or a wallet full of tainted drug money.
My friends and I dealt dope in the smart way, and most of us never got caught. We were not all totally White, but most of us were raised in a mostly-White beach town. We dressed up like college kids, office workers, gym enthusiasts, and conformed to White middle class society in every way.
Yet we sold dope right in front of the cops and society's noses for years for years and never got caught. There's a luscious feeling in that.
A friend of mine made so much money selling coke that he bought two homes in San Fransisco, one to store the coke and another to live in. He was so hot I didn't dare even look him up. You don't even want to hang around some super-dealer like that.
I just checked him out and he's resurfaced in Southern California, fit, healthy and fifty, selling real estate. A survivor. I guess he never got caught either. Even my Mom shakes her head in admiration of him. White society always respects someone who can outsmart the cops in a not-too-evil way. Why? It places a premium on not being stupid, and not being caught.
I often wonder if other ethnics share this value.
Sometimes I think that these young Blacks and Hispanics nowadays place a premium on getting caught, and therefore being a moron. This I will never understand.
These Hispanic kids around here are the biggest idiots on Earth. They do dope deals, albeit for small amounts of pot, right out in the open in front of everyone. The seem to take special delight in doing an obvious drug deal right out where anyone can see it happen. I guess it's a macho thing.
White middle class me says it's not a macho thing, it's a stupid thing. No wonder they are always getting hauled in on dope-selling charges. They dress up like gangsters and criminals and then wonder why they get stopped by the cops. Duh.
There really is an art to being a criminal.
All in all, psilocybin is a fun drug. You keep hearing horror stories about this stuff, about people who took too much of it and are mentally ill, or people who took too much and are fried in some way or another. Problem is that there is not the tiniest evidence that this stuff damages your brain, unlike almost other drugs of abuse. Yes, the drugs that make you feel the most insane of all do not do the slightest harm to your brain in any way.
I'm not saying take them every weekend. I haven't taken the stuff in about 21 years, and I'm not sure if I will ever take it again. All those stories floating around about people taking too much hallucinogens need to be taken with a grain of salt. If it's harmless to the brain, how is it supposed to create fried-out acidheads? Answer: it's can't.
Taking these kinds of drugs is one of the most bizarre experiences that one can have on this Earth, though, and you can have some really terrifying bad trips. Psychological harm can occur from traumatic experiences.
By the way, it's not harmful to any other organ in your body either. Plus there are long-lasting positive effects, apparently.
On the other hand, this drug can cause HPPD, so I'd advise against taking it. I have HPPD, but I only have bright colors, and it's really not so bad. You're living in a Technicolor world, and if you just accept it, the world looks a lot better this way.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Manuel Marulanda
Great photo of Manuel Marulanda (seated) from the early days.
The more classic view that people are a lot more familiar with - the veteran revolutionary and guerrilla. In the background are uniformed FARC troops.I've already been over on this blog why the Colombian revolutionaries really have no alternative but to fight. When they tried to lay down their weapons, they were slaughtered like flies. As long as there is no open space for peaceful dissent in Colombia, armed struggle will be a sensible option.
Via a couple of articles out of People's Movement Support Group, we now learn a lot more about Sure Shot - Manuel Marulanda. The essential moment in the Colombian struggle and the one that actually gave rise to the FARC 16 years later was the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the presidential candidate that the people had pinned their hopes on.
Colombia has always been ruled by two ruling class parties - the Liberals and the Conservatives. Although they hated each other, there was never much difference between the two. Gaitán was a new kind of Liberal - a leftwing populist that was actually going to work for the people and not the oligarchy for once.
Even his own Liberal party condemned him, and he was quickly assassinated by unknown parties. The killing set off La Violencia, a conflict between the Conservatives and Liberals that killed 200,000 people in a small country over the next 16 years. The peasants in the countryside split off to form militias to slaughter each other.
The Conservatives represented the older oligarchy, and the Liberals represented some nouveau riche up and coming members of the oligarchy who wanted in. However, the Liberals were joined by many peasants and Communists. The two parties finally signed a peace treaty in 1963 and decided to declare war on the Communists.
Pedro Antonio Marín Marín, later Manuel Marulanda, was born into a poor peasant family around 1930. At age 13, he was forced to leave home to find work. Great system! At some time after 1948, Marín was attacked in his home by a Conservative militia. This led him to join the Liberals. He took the name Manuel Marulanda after an Afro-Colombian union leader who was tortured to death in 1953.
In the late 1950's, he joined forces with Jacobo Arenas to form a Marxist guerrilla group modeled on the Fidelistas fighting in the mountains of Cuba. It was as a guerrilla that he earned the name Tiro Fijo or Sure Shot.
The Colombian ruling class and US imperialism are overjoyed that Marulanda died. He died at age 77 in the arms of his lover, surrounded by his guerrilla comrades. The imperialists and their lackeys have made up a lie that he was killed by a bomb from a Colombian jet. This is not true.
It is little known that there is a fierce guerrilla war raging in Colombia. You don't read about much in the news, but the FARC, while conducting an orderly retreat under a severe offensive, is counterattacking against the Colombian military, and there are many small battles taking place every week.
The FARC is quite popular in Colombia, especially amongst the rural poor. If you go out into some areas of the countryside, all adults that you see will be members of the FARC. The peasant farmer in the countryside with his cows will have a sidearm. The woman cooking in her kitchen cooks food for guerrillas.
This is the FARC's rural militia, and it numbers up to 200,000-300,000. This is much more than the 15-20,000 full-time soldiers of the FARC. These peasants have been part of the FARC's support base for decades. That's just the way it is in a lot of places. FARC has had a much harder time organizing in the cities, but they do have urban militias.
The kidnappings that the US media screams about all the time are usually just arrests for not paying revolutionary taxes. Every Colombian with an income of over $1 million/year (that's a lot of people) has to pay revolutionary taxes every year (usually 10%). Most wealthy Colombians just do it. They drive out 25-50 miles from the city they live and pay the guerrillas. Then they are free for another year.
Some wealthy Colombians have not been paying taxes lately, so they have been arrested by the FARC for tax evasion. They will be released when they pay their taxes. So it's not really the "kidnapping and ransom payments" scenario that the media wants you to believe.
The FARC is even very popular across the border in Ecuador, especially in the rural areas. The notion that this group has no support is a lie propagated by its enemies.
Another lie is that these guerrillas live in luxury because they are narco-traffickers. They do tax drug crops in their regions of control, including cocaine. However, all of the money goes towards the war. No FARC guerrillas or leaders live in luxury.
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Monday, November 06, 2006
Afghanistan Wrapup for November 4, 2006
Updated January 24, 2008
Saturday, November 4
Zamboli, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province: Afghan and British forces undertook an operation aimed at wiping out the Taliban forces in the area after locals complained that Taliban activities were rampant there. The operation set off a major battle that resulted in 7 Taliban being killed and 30 more being wounded. There were no Coalition casualties.
In the press reports, the town was listed as Zanboba, but there is either no such town or it could not be located on any map. The nearest town with a similar name is Zamboli, which must be the town they are referring to here. Zamboli (map) is 8 1/2 miles east of Gereshk.
****
Tagab Valley, Parwan Province, Afternoon: Taliban guerrillas ambushed a US convoy hunting for them in this winding valley east of the main US Bagram Airbase. A heavy battle ensued and air strikes were called in. The battle was still going on as evening fell.
A Taliban spokesman said several US vehicles were destroyed. In the last few weeks, the Taliban have come back here in force for the first time since they were ousted in the US invasion of 2001. That is an ominous sign.
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*****
Arandu, Bajour District, Pakistan: French Air Force M2000's attacked guerrillas fighting US troops near here. What is truly amazing is that US forces were apparently fighting guerrillas inside Pakistan, as per this report here. Arandu (map) is right across the Kunar River from Bari Kot on the Afghan side.
The Pakistani military keeps a base in Arandu to ward off an attack by Afghanistan when it was occupied by the Soviet Union, but the whole area is simply teeming with jihadis, Taliban, Hezb-i-Islami (HII) and Al Qaeda.
Some mid-level commanders are definitely active in this area, including Commander Faqirullah of the HII and Abu Ikhlas of al-Qaeda. Recently, a number of high-level Al Qaeda leaders were spotted in Baz Gal (map), 8 miles north of Arandu on the border with Nuristan. US forces asked Afghan troops for assistance in staging an operation in the Baz Gal region.
It later turned out that Al Qaeda fled right after the US told the Afghan Army about the proposed operation. Obviously, elements of the Afghan Army have ties to Al Qaeda. In order to deal with this problem,the US has recruited an Afghan "Peace Force" in the region made up largely of local criminals and former Communists, the common denominator being hatred of the Taliban.
Locals in this area were neutral for some time, as the US successfully bribed their leaders and did wreaked little havoc on the region, but most now support the Islamist guerrillas, the reason being the creation of the "Peace Force" described above.
What is interesting is that in 1893-1895, Baz Gal was a central battle of the war waged by the Afghan king Amir Abdul Rehman Khan against the Kafirs (non-Muslims) who lived there. The region was conquered and converted at sword point. These former Kafirs in Nuristan have become some of the most extreme Muslims in all Afghanistan, in an odd twist of fate.
The HII is really much more prominent in Kunar than the Taliban, who were widely hated here during their rule for some reason. Bin Laden tried to force locals to support the Taliban, but they did not want to, so there are some problems in this region for Bin Laden.
The bunkers were abandoned after the Soviets left in 1989, but the base is still manned by Chitral Scouts, some armed with heavy weapons. I believe that Osama bin Laden is hiding right around this area right at this moment.
PBS producers filming the show In Search of Al Qaeda went to this town, but they found little other than fields of marijuana (smoked by locals) and a crude sign made by charming Pakistani border guards, "We Desire Death More Than You Desire Life".
Opium cultivation has been increasing a lot in Kunar and Nuristan lately and seems to form the backbone of the insurgency here.
Interestingly, the Gawar-Bati language is spoken in Arandu. This is an obscure language that is spoken by only 10,500 people in the world. It is related to Kashmiri and, more distantly, to Sindhi and Punjabi. Some speakers are bilingual in Pashto. The people themselves are called Arandui and Narasati. They are also called Gabr, Birkot, Nursut and Gawar-Bati.
*****
Friday, November 3
Khost Province, Late: Taliban fighters hiding on both sides of a highway ambushed 2 trucks carrying logistics and supplies to a US base in the area. 2 Pakistani truck drivers were killed and an Afghan driver was wounded. The attackers fled immediately after the attack.
****
Afghanistan: An Italian photographer, Gabriele Torsello, who was kidnapped by the Taliban while traveling on a bus near Kandahar last month has been freed. He said that his charming fundamentalist idiot captors spent most of the 3 weeks chained in a dark room and could not even see the sun shine.
At one point, the Taliban cavemen offered to trade Torsello for an Afghan man who converted from Islam to Christianity and then fled his backwards land for Italy. The Taliban maniacs probably wanted to put the convert on trial and then execute him.
****
****
Bajour Agency, Pakistan: 3,000 tribesmen marched in Chingkai (map) here to protest airstrike on a madrassa in the town a few days ago that killed 80 people. Although Pakistan claims that one of their helicopters executed the strike, the evidence indicates that a US predator drone actually carried out the attack.
Pakistani authorities said that the madrassa was a headquarters and training camp for Al Qaeda militants fighting in Afghanistan across the border. Another 2000 protesters marched in Inayat Qala ( map), another town in Bajour. Meanwhile, the Pakistani opposition fundamentalist cretin Islamist coalition, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, called a general strike closed shops and halted public transport in Khar, Bajour's main town.
Protesters said that the victims of the strike were just Islamic religious students and teachers, which seems dubious based on the evidence.
*****
Gangikhel, Bermal District, Paktika Province: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and B-1B Lancers dropped GBU-31's and GBU-38's on Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Gangikhel (map here) is located in the Bermal District right near the Pakistan border with South Waziristan.
A search for this town on my blog will reveal a number of pictures of this hostile town, where many attacks have been taking place lately. The Pashtun population here is generally hostile and not much can be done to placate them. In general, they do not even want schools built for the boys, much less the girls. After US forces build a school, locals usually say that they don't like it. The school is often burned down afterwards.
*****
Dowlat Shah, Dowlat Shah District, Laghman Province: US Air Force A-10s attacked guerrilla fighters battling US forces near here. A detailed description of this district is below. It is difficult to see how the Taliban could be operating here, so perhaps this is Hezb-i-Islami the US is fighting here, since he has a significant presence here.
****
Pasab, Bagran District, Helmand Province: British Royal Air Force GR-7s attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. Pasab (map) is located 2 miles northeast of Bagran, the capital of the province. This region is hostile and dangerous and was only recently retaken by NATO forces.
It was a Taliban stronghold during their reign and Al Qaeda had bases here. Bin Laden was interviewed at a base here. This was the last place that Mullah Omar was seen before he vanished on a motorcycle.
*****
Garmser, Garmser District, Helmand Province: British Royal Air Force GR-7s and a U.S. Air Force B-1B attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. There is regular fighting and bombing around here for months now with no end in sight.
Thursday, November 2
Adraskan District, Herat province: The Taliban ambushed a convoy belonging to the district police chief as he was visiting police posts in his district. The police chief, Mohammad Sediq, was five other policemen were killed and 3 police were wounded. Adraskan is a large district south and west of Herat City that borders on Farah Province.
North Waziristan: Guerrillas abducted Maulvi Silahuddin, a teacher at a local madrassa and executed him by shooting him in the chest and beheading him. A letter left near his body accused him of spying for the US in Afghanistan and warned that anyone doing the same would meet the same fate.
*****
Afghanistan: Since October 15, more than 60,000 Afghans in Pakistan have so far been registered in a program to register Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The program is being run by both the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Pakistani government. The 60,000 registered was the largest number of Afghan refugees recorded since registration efforts began.
Both the government and the UN agency said that they hoped that the program would be completed by the end of the year. 1 million Afghan refugees have been staying in 74 camps in Pakistan, mostly in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and southwestern Balochistan province.
****
Hajji Musa, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. Hajji Musa (map) is located 1/2 mile north of Payendi, the focus of bombing attacks earlier in the previous week. The town is 8 1/2 miles northwest of Panjwayi, the capital of the district.
Shemika, Afghanistan: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. This town could not be found on any map.
*****
Dowlat Shah, Dowlat Shah District, Laghman Province: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Dowlat Shah (map here) is the capital of the district by the same name. It is located 22 1/2 miles north of Mitarlam, the capital of the district.
This province has been off and on hostile for quite some time now. Some US troops were killed in caves near Alishang to the south a while back. This district is majority Pashayi or Kohistani, a Dardic people. The other 29% are Tajik and only 1% are Pashtuns.
Hezb-I-Islami was formerly pretty popular here. The Kohistani speak a language called Southeast Pashayi. A map of where these people reside is here. The Pashayi have some herds here, mostly goats but also a few sheep. Masculinity is a highly-valued trait with these people, and all men carry knives, and most also carry guns.
A village council resolves disputes, but does not get involved in interpersonal disputes, with the result being that there are many long-lasting feuds going on with these people. Although the Pashayi now live in high mountains, the suggestion here is that, with the arrival of the Pashtun invaders, the Pashayis living in the plains were forced to move into the mountains.
The Pashayi, like many other obscure peoples in this part of Afghanistan, were thought to be formerly Hindus were converted to Islam some time ago. They probably practiced a corrupted form of Hinduism, like the Nuristani peoples.
Now they are almost all Hanafite Muslims, except about 1% seem to continue to practice some obscure tribal religion, perhaps similar to their pre-Islamic religion. Although they are Hanafi Sunnis, Sufism is very popular with these people, and there are shrines dedicated to Sufi saints throughout their region. The Pashayi love music.
The oral history of their people and their culture is preserved in these songs, since only about 10% of them can read or write in Pashtun and Southeast Pashayi is not a written language. Every year after harvest, the men go from village to village singing new songs that have been composed that year.
The governor here is a Pashtun, but he is not accepted well by the population. Although this mountainous district is very poor, it is rich in natural resources such as fruit, forests and water. There is only one road running through the district and it is not in good shape. Communications is very poor here.
The main source of water is the Alisheg River that runs through the center of the district. Most of the men have no work, and hence many are armed and are engaged in various criminal activities. 30% of the homes were destroyed in the Soviet War. The homes here are built of stones and wood, unlike the usual mud-brick Afghan home.
Most people get their water from the river, which is not sanitary. Cholera killed 13 people in 2001. The main water source is springs, but people often have to walk a long ways to get to them. Wheat, corn, vegetables and opium are all grown here, but this mountainous area is short of arable land. What arable land there is is subject to flooding.
Forestry is the main source of income, but the district has been heavily deforested due to overcutting. Instead of using pack animals to transport goods up and down the mountains, the residents here use a "pack animal" known as the "human female". I think using mules would be more humane.
Although there are quite a few medical workers here for Afghanistan, there are still only 2 clinics in the area. This is not enough, as they are too far away for many villagers. Consequently, many people die on their way to the hospital. The relatives of the dead say, "Thank you George Bush and thank you free market capitalism!"
There are 11 female teachers here, which is pretty good for this country. There are almost as many girls in school as boys, which is amazing for Afghanistan. Only 2 schools have actual buildings, the rest being "George Bush specials", that is schools held in the open air with no buildings at all! There is also a shortage of educational materials here.
The backwards Kohistani people here treat their human females as pack animals, forcing them to carry loads of up to 120 pounds on their backs and walk for up to 4 hours at a time, because the men are too darned sexist and lazy. This treatment of women means that she is the equivalent of a mule, or possibly even less, and may be killed or harmed at will.
Consequently, there are a large number of crimes against women here, including killings, rapes, kidnappings, domestic violence, forced marriage, woman-selling, and feuds over women. After a man dies, his relatives steal all of the couple's property, leaving her with zero. Women accused of adultery are killed, as is the case all over the caveman Muslim World these days.
When the Communists came to Afghanistan, brutal as they were, one of their first projects was to reform the criminal sexist war waged on women by Afghan men.
For the dastardly crime of standing up for Afghan women, and even arming them (there were many all-female brigades who passionately took up arms to fight for the Communists and preserve their rights), Imperialist America dedicated itself to destroying the regime.
For this task, the imperialists utilized Medieval fundamentalist cretins who ran around Afghanistan throwing the girls out of schools, burning schools to the ground and murdering women teachers. The principal complaints of the imperialist-sponsored Neanderthals were the elimination of the selling of women as if they were donkeys and goats and the regime's support for education of women.
Imperialist Uncle Sam's main man in this game was a gangster called Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a charming gentleman who formerly specialized in throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to be wear the Islamic veil.
The logical outcome of this insanity, other than a ruined land and 1.5 million dead Afghans, was the ascension to power of the Taliban, the creation of the USA, and the empowerment of Al Qaeda, another Frankenstein monster directly created by the CIA. First the Buddhas were blown up, then the World Trade Centers were destroyed. Frankenstein came back to attack the mad scientists who created him.
In summary, the imperialist USA decided to replace the Communists, who stood for the rights of women with gun in hand, with fundamentalist misogynist throwbacks. America should be proud of this?
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Sangay Ghar, Wor Mamay District, Paktika Province : A US Air Force B-1B Lancer and Air Force A-10s attacked Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Sangay Ghar is a mountain in Paktika. It is also known as Sanjay Ghar.
Wednesday, November 1
Sari-Pul, Sari-Pul Province, AM: Unknown gunmen fired on a vehicle belonging to a Japanese NGO group, Peace Winds Japan, here. 3 local Afghans working for the NGO were in the vehicle but they were not hurt. There have been a number of such attacks on NGO organizations in northern Afghanistan, were guerrillas are rare or absent. No one knows who these attackers are.
Nuristan Province: US forces raided a Taliban cell here, killing 4 Taliban and arresting 2 more.
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Momandgarh, Khar and Dankol, Bajour Tribal Agency, Pakistan: Armed tribesmen protested for the second day here against the the Pakistani and US governments for the US raid on a madrassa in nearby Chenagai on Monday that killed 80 people.
Pakistani authorities said the madrassa was not only being used as an Al Qaeda training camp but was also being visited by top Al Qaeda leaders, including Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu Obaida Al-Misri had visited the seminary frequently in the past.
Al-Misri is Al Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan's Kunar Province next to Bajour and is the mastermind of the ludicrous London airliner bombing plot that was recently rolled up by British officials.
Once you read how hard it would have been to actually carry out this science fiction-style bombing plot, you realize that there is no way that the operatives could possibly have mixed those liquid explosives together to make them blow up and bring down the planes.
Around 8,000 people, many brandishing guns, rallied at Momandgarh on the border of Bajour and the neighboring Mohmand tribal agency, and 3,000 protesters gathered at Dankol, near the Afghan border. Neither Momandgarh or Dankol could be located on a map. Markets and schools in Khar remained closed for the third day.
Pakistani troops sealed off the Bajour Agency (it's dubious whether that is possible) and part of the neighboring Mohmand Agency and were not letting anyone either enter or leave the areas.
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Near Kandahar Airport: Suicide car bomb attack on a NATO convoy here wounded 2 NATO soldiers. The attack occurred near a bazaar on the road leading to the NATO base at the airport.
Tuesday, October 31
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Waygal Valley, Waygal District, Nuristan Province: Roadside bomb on a US Humvee on patrol here killed 2 US soldiers, Maj. Douglas E. Sloan, Sgt. Charles J. McClain, and Pfc. Alex Oceguera and wounded 2 more, both critically.
The wounded soldiers were evacuated to a US hospital in Asadabad, the capital of Kunar Province, where 1 soldier subsequently died. The other soldier, demining expert Cpl. William Gordon Jr., was evacuated to Germany for treatment and his condition was upgraded to serious. The attack probably took place near Moladis, since there was an airstrike by US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs at Moladis on this day.
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Khar, Bajour Tribal Agency, Pakistan: More than 15,000 armed Pakistani tribesmen protested here in the capital of the Bajour Agency after a US predator drone attack on a madrassa in the town of Chenagai killed 80 people who were suspected of being Al Qaeda guerrillas training to go fight in Afghanistan.
Protestors chanted, "Down with America", "Down with Musharraf", "Long Live Osama" and "Love Live Mullah Omar", just to give us an idea of where their true loyalties lie. "Our jihad will continue and Inshallah people will go to Afghanistan to oust American and British forces," said Maulana Faqir Mohammad, a pro-Taliban lunatic cleric, in a speech before fundamentalist fanatics.
Many in the turbaned crowd carried Kalashnikovs and wore bandoliers, and a few had RPG launchers. Protestors said that the dead were not guerrillas but instead were just young men aged 15-25. Such claims by people in this region cannot be taken at face value, since they always say that everyone killed in any attack here was a civilian, even when known guerrillas are killed.
The Predator apparently attacked the school on a tip that Ayman Al-Zawahiri was there. If he was not there by chance, at least it was a known Al Qaeda training camp, so the attack was a win-win situation from the point of view of US and Pakistani forces.
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Landi Kotal, Khyber Tribal Agency, Pakistan: A fundamentalist kook mullah, Maulana Nasiruddin, told a crowd of 1,000 idiots in Landi Kotal (map) that Muslims should become suicide bombers to avenge the US predator strike in Chenagai described in the entry above.
Andar District, Ghazni Province: A suicide attacker blew himself up outside the district police chief's office here, killing 1 policeman and wounding 1 more and wounding 2 US soldiers.
Kandahar: A US Air Force Predator fired a Hellfire missile at Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here.
Zardad, Afghanistan: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling US NATO forces near here. Towns called Zardad located in both Zabul and Paktika Provinces. It is not known which town is being referred to here.
Sar-e Howz, Pushtun Kot District, Faryab Province: French M2000 Mirages attacked guerrillas battling NATO forces near here. This area is 21 miles south of the capital of Faryab, Maymana. Sar-e Howz (map) is a large town. It is not known why there are guerrillas in this northern area, which ought to be peaceful.
This district is 65% Uzbek, 30% Tajik and 5% Pashtun. It is hard to see what the security problem would be here. 50% of the homes here were destroyed in the Soviet War. There is only one doctor in the entire district. Most people have to walk 1 1/2 miles to get to a source of potable water. Sanitation here is disastrous and essentially nonexistent, leading to may diseases.
Wheat, barley, millet, rice and corn are grown here. This is a fairly wet region, and 70% of the agriculture is fed by rain. The illiteracy rate is a frightening 98! Thank you George Bush! The education system is fairly good for Afghanistan and amazingly there are 17 female teachers and some girls in school.
The female student population is only 7% of male population, which is terrible. Although 10 new schools have been built, a number of schools were destroyed in the war and still have not yet been rebuilt.
It is impossible to imagine the Bush reactionaries, who oppose government spending on education, health care, and just plain in general on most everything except the military and cops, as doing much to help these poor people here.
After all, any government that spends money on those things is attacked as "socialist" and "Leftist" by the USA, and then the US attempts to attack and destroy the regime in one way or another.
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Monday, October 30
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Chenagai, Bajaur tribal Agency, Pakistan, 5 AM: Either a US predator drone or 4 US helicopters fired a missile or missiles at a madrassa here, killing about 80 suspected militants.
At least 3 persons were wounded and evacuated to a hospital in Khar, but more wounded were reportedly streaming into the hospital later in the day. The strike appeared to have killed almost everyone in the madrassa. A map of Chenagai is linked above.
US and Pakistani forces claim that the attack was led by 4 Pakistani gunships that fired missiles at the school, but ABC news published a report saying that sources in the US government or military admitted that it was a US predator drone and not Pakistani gunships.
Given the nature of the attack, previous predator drone strikes in the area, the accuracy of the drones, and the lack of skill of Pakistani helicopter gunship pilots, I think that this was either an attack by a US predator drone or an attack by US helicopters.
Further, almost everyone in Bajour insists that the attack was carried out by a Predator. They have no reason to say this if the Pakistani military really did the attack.
Adding weight to the theory, there have been previous Predator drone strikes, including one that killed Nek Mohammad, head of the Pakistani Taliban, in Mir Ali in North Waziristan. In that attack the Pakistani military also insisted that they did it, not the US.
I understand why they are lying and it is perfectly acceptable to lie in this context. It's deadly in terms of Pakistani public opinion if the Pakistani military admits it is allowing the US military to carry out deadly attacks on its soil. There is less political harm in saying that the Pakistani military did it themselves.
The madrassa was run by a pro-Taliban commander wanted by Pakistan for harboring al Qaeda fighters. Of the 80 dead, it appears that 40 of them were militants. The rest were probably just students at the madrassa or civilians. Residents said there were children among the dead.
The madrassa in Chenagai, 6 miles north of Khar, the capital of Bajour, was being used as a militant training camp, according to the Pakistani government. Surveillance showed men undergoing military training exercises there.
Although the Pakistani military said there were no civilians in the compound, a reporter in Chenagai described villagers wailing as they collected mutilated bodies, some of children as young as seven, from the rubble. The children were apparently students at the madrassa.
Disputing the Predator drone story, other locals agreed that the attacking forces were helicopters, but said they were US copters, not Pakistani. Some homes next to the madrassa were also hit in the attack.
Although most reports said that the attack took place in Chenagai, some other reports said it took place in Mamoon, near Damadola. Damadola (map here) is the site of an earlier attack on a home were Ayman Al-Zawahiri was said to be scheduled to show up a meeting in a private home there.
The home was targeted by a US predator drone, and scores of people were killed in that attack also. At least some of them were high-ranking Al Qaeda operatives.
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Payendi, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: NATO warplanes spotted a group of Taliban guerrillas setting up a firing position on a roof in the Zhari District and attacked the insurgents, killing 12 of them.
As we have noted repeatedly, there is no Zhari District in Kandahar. Instead, it is just the name for a region in the Panjwayi District 25-30 miles west of Kandahar city and largely north of the Arghandab River and near the main highway.
This attack was apparently near the town of Payendi (map), 8 miles northwest of Panjwayi, because there was an airstrike there with A-10's on this day. The A-10 dropped a GBU-12 on the guerrillas.
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Zabul Province: US forces said they killed 55 Taliban fighters here in an intense battle. 1 US soldier was killed in the fighting. Later reports lowered the 55 killed figure to 20 killed.
Now Zad, Helmand Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs fired cannon rounds on Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. There is regular bombing and fighting going on around Now Zad for a long time now.
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Ghura Ghundey Dasht, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers and French M2000 Mirages attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. Ghura Ghundey Dasht is a plain in Helmand. This plain is northwest of Garmser in a very sparsely populated area.
It is located 1/2 way between Garmser and Nawa-I-Barakzai and then about 10 miles west of the Helmand River town of Akram Kalay (map), off into the wilderness.
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Sunday, October 29
Kunar Province, near the border of Nuristan Province: Fighting broke out between guerrillas and US forces in this extremely remote region. 3 troops were wounded by guerrilla rocket attacks in the fighting.
Kajah Ulva, Afghanistan: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs fired cannon rounds, a GBU-12 and a 500-pound bomb on Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. Kajah Ulva could not be found on any map.
Shami, Parwan Province: An Air Force B1-B Lancer attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. Shami Kabol (actually called Shami) is actually located in Parvan Province, not Kabul Province. A map is here. It is located 16 miles southeast of Bagram Airbase, near the border with Kabul Province. The Taliban have been getting more active in Parvan lately.
Gereshk, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province: RAF GR-7s attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. The Gereshk area is chronically hostile with no end in sight.
Nazargol Kala, Urgun District, Paktika Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Nazargol Kala (map here) is located 2 1/2 miles northeast of Urgun, the main market town in Paktika and home of a large US base. This area is highly unstable.
Saturday, October 28
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Uruzgan Province: Roadside bomb attack on US troops here killed 1 US Special Forces soldier and wounded 8 more SF troops, 3 US National Geographic Channel journalists and 3 civilians. TMZ.com said that the journalists were embedded with the Special Forces unit in order to film a special for the channel called, The Green Berets.
A producer and photographer were flown to Germany for treatment of facial lacerations. The sound man suffered a ruptured eardrum but was treated in Afghanistan.
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North of Tarin Kot, Tarin Kot District,Uruzgan Province: 100 to 150 Taliban guerrillas attacked a NATO base here. NATO and Afghan forces fought back small arms fire, attack helicopters and air strikes in a battle lasting several hours. 70 Taliban were reportedly killed in the fighting. 1 Afghan soldier was wounded.
Payendi, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO troops near here, dropping GBU-12 bombs on them. Payendi (map) is located 5 miles northwest of Panjwayi, the capital of the district, along the Arghandab River.
Friday, October 27
Afghanistan: 1 US soldier died somewhere here from non-combat related injuries.
Monday, October 23
Pech District, Kunar Province: A mortar test-fired by US forces here fell short of its target and instead hit a home, killing 3 children and wounding 2 more kids. Troops had been firing mortars into an area where they had come under attack from guerrillas earlier.
Saturday, November 4
Zamboli, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province: Afghan and British forces undertook an operation aimed at wiping out the Taliban forces in the area after locals complained that Taliban activities were rampant there. The operation set off a major battle that resulted in 7 Taliban being killed and 30 more being wounded. There were no Coalition casualties.
In the press reports, the town was listed as Zanboba, but there is either no such town or it could not be located on any map. The nearest town with a similar name is Zamboli, which must be the town they are referring to here. Zamboli (map) is 8 1/2 miles east of Gereshk.
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Tagab Valley, Parwan Province, Afternoon: Taliban guerrillas ambushed a US convoy hunting for them in this winding valley east of the main US Bagram Airbase. A heavy battle ensued and air strikes were called in. The battle was still going on as evening fell.
A Taliban spokesman said several US vehicles were destroyed. In the last few weeks, the Taliban have come back here in force for the first time since they were ousted in the US invasion of 2001. That is an ominous sign.
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Arandu, Bajour District, Pakistan: French Air Force M2000's attacked guerrillas fighting US troops near here. What is truly amazing is that US forces were apparently fighting guerrillas inside Pakistan, as per this report here. Arandu (map) is right across the Kunar River from Bari Kot on the Afghan side.
The Pakistani military keeps a base in Arandu to ward off an attack by Afghanistan when it was occupied by the Soviet Union, but the whole area is simply teeming with jihadis, Taliban, Hezb-i-Islami (HII) and Al Qaeda.
Some mid-level commanders are definitely active in this area, including Commander Faqirullah of the HII and Abu Ikhlas of al-Qaeda. Recently, a number of high-level Al Qaeda leaders were spotted in Baz Gal (map), 8 miles north of Arandu on the border with Nuristan. US forces asked Afghan troops for assistance in staging an operation in the Baz Gal region.
It later turned out that Al Qaeda fled right after the US told the Afghan Army about the proposed operation. Obviously, elements of the Afghan Army have ties to Al Qaeda. In order to deal with this problem,the US has recruited an Afghan "Peace Force" in the region made up largely of local criminals and former Communists, the common denominator being hatred of the Taliban.
Locals in this area were neutral for some time, as the US successfully bribed their leaders and did wreaked little havoc on the region, but most now support the Islamist guerrillas, the reason being the creation of the "Peace Force" described above.
What is interesting is that in 1893-1895, Baz Gal was a central battle of the war waged by the Afghan king Amir Abdul Rehman Khan against the Kafirs (non-Muslims) who lived there. The region was conquered and converted at sword point. These former Kafirs in Nuristan have become some of the most extreme Muslims in all Afghanistan, in an odd twist of fate.
The HII is really much more prominent in Kunar than the Taliban, who were widely hated here during their rule for some reason. Bin Laden tried to force locals to support the Taliban, but they did not want to, so there are some problems in this region for Bin Laden.
The bunkers were abandoned after the Soviets left in 1989, but the base is still manned by Chitral Scouts, some armed with heavy weapons. I believe that Osama bin Laden is hiding right around this area right at this moment.
PBS producers filming the show In Search of Al Qaeda went to this town, but they found little other than fields of marijuana (smoked by locals) and a crude sign made by charming Pakistani border guards, "We Desire Death More Than You Desire Life".
Opium cultivation has been increasing a lot in Kunar and Nuristan lately and seems to form the backbone of the insurgency here.
Interestingly, the Gawar-Bati language is spoken in Arandu. This is an obscure language that is spoken by only 10,500 people in the world. It is related to Kashmiri and, more distantly, to Sindhi and Punjabi. Some speakers are bilingual in Pashto. The people themselves are called Arandui and Narasati. They are also called Gabr, Birkot, Nursut and Gawar-Bati.
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Friday, November 3
Khost Province, Late: Taliban fighters hiding on both sides of a highway ambushed 2 trucks carrying logistics and supplies to a US base in the area. 2 Pakistani truck drivers were killed and an Afghan driver was wounded. The attackers fled immediately after the attack.
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Afghanistan: An Italian photographer, Gabriele Torsello, who was kidnapped by the Taliban while traveling on a bus near Kandahar last month has been freed. He said that his charming fundamentalist idiot captors spent most of the 3 weeks chained in a dark room and could not even see the sun shine.
At one point, the Taliban cavemen offered to trade Torsello for an Afghan man who converted from Islam to Christianity and then fled his backwards land for Italy. The Taliban maniacs probably wanted to put the convert on trial and then execute him.
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Bajour Agency, Pakistan: 3,000 tribesmen marched in Chingkai (map) here to protest airstrike on a madrassa in the town a few days ago that killed 80 people. Although Pakistan claims that one of their helicopters executed the strike, the evidence indicates that a US predator drone actually carried out the attack.
Pakistani authorities said that the madrassa was a headquarters and training camp for Al Qaeda militants fighting in Afghanistan across the border. Another 2000 protesters marched in Inayat Qala ( map), another town in Bajour. Meanwhile, the Pakistani opposition fundamentalist cretin Islamist coalition, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, called a general strike closed shops and halted public transport in Khar, Bajour's main town.
Protesters said that the victims of the strike were just Islamic religious students and teachers, which seems dubious based on the evidence.
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Gangikhel, Bermal District, Paktika Province: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and B-1B Lancers dropped GBU-31's and GBU-38's on Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Gangikhel (map here) is located in the Bermal District right near the Pakistan border with South Waziristan.
A search for this town on my blog will reveal a number of pictures of this hostile town, where many attacks have been taking place lately. The Pashtun population here is generally hostile and not much can be done to placate them. In general, they do not even want schools built for the boys, much less the girls. After US forces build a school, locals usually say that they don't like it. The school is often burned down afterwards.
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Dowlat Shah, Dowlat Shah District, Laghman Province: US Air Force A-10s attacked guerrilla fighters battling US forces near here. A detailed description of this district is below. It is difficult to see how the Taliban could be operating here, so perhaps this is Hezb-i-Islami the US is fighting here, since he has a significant presence here.
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Pasab, Bagran District, Helmand Province: British Royal Air Force GR-7s attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. Pasab (map) is located 2 miles northeast of Bagran, the capital of the province. This region is hostile and dangerous and was only recently retaken by NATO forces.
It was a Taliban stronghold during their reign and Al Qaeda had bases here. Bin Laden was interviewed at a base here. This was the last place that Mullah Omar was seen before he vanished on a motorcycle.
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Garmser, Garmser District, Helmand Province: British Royal Air Force GR-7s and a U.S. Air Force B-1B attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. There is regular fighting and bombing around here for months now with no end in sight.
Thursday, November 2
Adraskan District, Herat province: The Taliban ambushed a convoy belonging to the district police chief as he was visiting police posts in his district. The police chief, Mohammad Sediq, was five other policemen were killed and 3 police were wounded. Adraskan is a large district south and west of Herat City that borders on Farah Province.
North Waziristan: Guerrillas abducted Maulvi Silahuddin, a teacher at a local madrassa and executed him by shooting him in the chest and beheading him. A letter left near his body accused him of spying for the US in Afghanistan and warned that anyone doing the same would meet the same fate.
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Afghanistan: Since October 15, more than 60,000 Afghans in Pakistan have so far been registered in a program to register Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The program is being run by both the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Pakistani government. The 60,000 registered was the largest number of Afghan refugees recorded since registration efforts began.
Both the government and the UN agency said that they hoped that the program would be completed by the end of the year. 1 million Afghan refugees have been staying in 74 camps in Pakistan, mostly in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and southwestern Balochistan province.
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Hajji Musa, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. Hajji Musa (map) is located 1/2 mile north of Payendi, the focus of bombing attacks earlier in the previous week. The town is 8 1/2 miles northwest of Panjwayi, the capital of the district.
Shemika, Afghanistan: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. This town could not be found on any map.
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Dowlat Shah, Dowlat Shah District, Laghman Province: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Dowlat Shah (map here) is the capital of the district by the same name. It is located 22 1/2 miles north of Mitarlam, the capital of the district.
This province has been off and on hostile for quite some time now. Some US troops were killed in caves near Alishang to the south a while back. This district is majority Pashayi or Kohistani, a Dardic people. The other 29% are Tajik and only 1% are Pashtuns.
Hezb-I-Islami was formerly pretty popular here. The Kohistani speak a language called Southeast Pashayi. A map of where these people reside is here. The Pashayi have some herds here, mostly goats but also a few sheep. Masculinity is a highly-valued trait with these people, and all men carry knives, and most also carry guns.
A village council resolves disputes, but does not get involved in interpersonal disputes, with the result being that there are many long-lasting feuds going on with these people. Although the Pashayi now live in high mountains, the suggestion here is that, with the arrival of the Pashtun invaders, the Pashayis living in the plains were forced to move into the mountains.
The Pashayi, like many other obscure peoples in this part of Afghanistan, were thought to be formerly Hindus were converted to Islam some time ago. They probably practiced a corrupted form of Hinduism, like the Nuristani peoples.
Now they are almost all Hanafite Muslims, except about 1% seem to continue to practice some obscure tribal religion, perhaps similar to their pre-Islamic religion. Although they are Hanafi Sunnis, Sufism is very popular with these people, and there are shrines dedicated to Sufi saints throughout their region. The Pashayi love music.
The oral history of their people and their culture is preserved in these songs, since only about 10% of them can read or write in Pashtun and Southeast Pashayi is not a written language. Every year after harvest, the men go from village to village singing new songs that have been composed that year.
The governor here is a Pashtun, but he is not accepted well by the population. Although this mountainous district is very poor, it is rich in natural resources such as fruit, forests and water. There is only one road running through the district and it is not in good shape. Communications is very poor here.
The main source of water is the Alisheg River that runs through the center of the district. Most of the men have no work, and hence many are armed and are engaged in various criminal activities. 30% of the homes were destroyed in the Soviet War. The homes here are built of stones and wood, unlike the usual mud-brick Afghan home.
Most people get their water from the river, which is not sanitary. Cholera killed 13 people in 2001. The main water source is springs, but people often have to walk a long ways to get to them. Wheat, corn, vegetables and opium are all grown here, but this mountainous area is short of arable land. What arable land there is is subject to flooding.
Forestry is the main source of income, but the district has been heavily deforested due to overcutting. Instead of using pack animals to transport goods up and down the mountains, the residents here use a "pack animal" known as the "human female". I think using mules would be more humane.
Although there are quite a few medical workers here for Afghanistan, there are still only 2 clinics in the area. This is not enough, as they are too far away for many villagers. Consequently, many people die on their way to the hospital. The relatives of the dead say, "Thank you George Bush and thank you free market capitalism!"
There are 11 female teachers here, which is pretty good for this country. There are almost as many girls in school as boys, which is amazing for Afghanistan. Only 2 schools have actual buildings, the rest being "George Bush specials", that is schools held in the open air with no buildings at all! There is also a shortage of educational materials here.
The backwards Kohistani people here treat their human females as pack animals, forcing them to carry loads of up to 120 pounds on their backs and walk for up to 4 hours at a time, because the men are too darned sexist and lazy. This treatment of women means that she is the equivalent of a mule, or possibly even less, and may be killed or harmed at will.
Consequently, there are a large number of crimes against women here, including killings, rapes, kidnappings, domestic violence, forced marriage, woman-selling, and feuds over women. After a man dies, his relatives steal all of the couple's property, leaving her with zero. Women accused of adultery are killed, as is the case all over the caveman Muslim World these days.
When the Communists came to Afghanistan, brutal as they were, one of their first projects was to reform the criminal sexist war waged on women by Afghan men.
For the dastardly crime of standing up for Afghan women, and even arming them (there were many all-female brigades who passionately took up arms to fight for the Communists and preserve their rights), Imperialist America dedicated itself to destroying the regime.
For this task, the imperialists utilized Medieval fundamentalist cretins who ran around Afghanistan throwing the girls out of schools, burning schools to the ground and murdering women teachers. The principal complaints of the imperialist-sponsored Neanderthals were the elimination of the selling of women as if they were donkeys and goats and the regime's support for education of women.
Imperialist Uncle Sam's main man in this game was a gangster called Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a charming gentleman who formerly specialized in throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to be wear the Islamic veil.
The logical outcome of this insanity, other than a ruined land and 1.5 million dead Afghans, was the ascension to power of the Taliban, the creation of the USA, and the empowerment of Al Qaeda, another Frankenstein monster directly created by the CIA. First the Buddhas were blown up, then the World Trade Centers were destroyed. Frankenstein came back to attack the mad scientists who created him.
In summary, the imperialist USA decided to replace the Communists, who stood for the rights of women with gun in hand, with fundamentalist misogynist throwbacks. America should be proud of this?
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Sangay Ghar, Wor Mamay District, Paktika Province : A US Air Force B-1B Lancer and Air Force A-10s attacked Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Sangay Ghar is a mountain in Paktika. It is also known as Sanjay Ghar.
Wednesday, November 1
Sari-Pul, Sari-Pul Province, AM: Unknown gunmen fired on a vehicle belonging to a Japanese NGO group, Peace Winds Japan, here. 3 local Afghans working for the NGO were in the vehicle but they were not hurt. There have been a number of such attacks on NGO organizations in northern Afghanistan, were guerrillas are rare or absent. No one knows who these attackers are.
Nuristan Province: US forces raided a Taliban cell here, killing 4 Taliban and arresting 2 more.
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Momandgarh, Khar and Dankol, Bajour Tribal Agency, Pakistan: Armed tribesmen protested for the second day here against the the Pakistani and US governments for the US raid on a madrassa in nearby Chenagai on Monday that killed 80 people.
Pakistani authorities said the madrassa was not only being used as an Al Qaeda training camp but was also being visited by top Al Qaeda leaders, including Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu Obaida Al-Misri had visited the seminary frequently in the past.
Al-Misri is Al Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan's Kunar Province next to Bajour and is the mastermind of the ludicrous London airliner bombing plot that was recently rolled up by British officials.
Once you read how hard it would have been to actually carry out this science fiction-style bombing plot, you realize that there is no way that the operatives could possibly have mixed those liquid explosives together to make them blow up and bring down the planes.
Around 8,000 people, many brandishing guns, rallied at Momandgarh on the border of Bajour and the neighboring Mohmand tribal agency, and 3,000 protesters gathered at Dankol, near the Afghan border. Neither Momandgarh or Dankol could be located on a map. Markets and schools in Khar remained closed for the third day.
Pakistani troops sealed off the Bajour Agency (it's dubious whether that is possible) and part of the neighboring Mohmand Agency and were not letting anyone either enter or leave the areas.
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Near Kandahar Airport: Suicide car bomb attack on a NATO convoy here wounded 2 NATO soldiers. The attack occurred near a bazaar on the road leading to the NATO base at the airport.
Tuesday, October 31
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Waygal Valley, Waygal District, Nuristan Province: Roadside bomb on a US Humvee on patrol here killed 2 US soldiers, Maj. Douglas E. Sloan, Sgt. Charles J. McClain, and Pfc. Alex Oceguera and wounded 2 more, both critically.
The wounded soldiers were evacuated to a US hospital in Asadabad, the capital of Kunar Province, where 1 soldier subsequently died. The other soldier, demining expert Cpl. William Gordon Jr., was evacuated to Germany for treatment and his condition was upgraded to serious. The attack probably took place near Moladis, since there was an airstrike by US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs at Moladis on this day.
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Khar, Bajour Tribal Agency, Pakistan: More than 15,000 armed Pakistani tribesmen protested here in the capital of the Bajour Agency after a US predator drone attack on a madrassa in the town of Chenagai killed 80 people who were suspected of being Al Qaeda guerrillas training to go fight in Afghanistan.
Protestors chanted, "Down with America", "Down with Musharraf", "Long Live Osama" and "Love Live Mullah Omar", just to give us an idea of where their true loyalties lie. "Our jihad will continue and Inshallah people will go to Afghanistan to oust American and British forces," said Maulana Faqir Mohammad, a pro-Taliban lunatic cleric, in a speech before fundamentalist fanatics.
Many in the turbaned crowd carried Kalashnikovs and wore bandoliers, and a few had RPG launchers. Protestors said that the dead were not guerrillas but instead were just young men aged 15-25. Such claims by people in this region cannot be taken at face value, since they always say that everyone killed in any attack here was a civilian, even when known guerrillas are killed.
The Predator apparently attacked the school on a tip that Ayman Al-Zawahiri was there. If he was not there by chance, at least it was a known Al Qaeda training camp, so the attack was a win-win situation from the point of view of US and Pakistani forces.
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Landi Kotal, Khyber Tribal Agency, Pakistan: A fundamentalist kook mullah, Maulana Nasiruddin, told a crowd of 1,000 idiots in Landi Kotal (map) that Muslims should become suicide bombers to avenge the US predator strike in Chenagai described in the entry above.
Andar District, Ghazni Province: A suicide attacker blew himself up outside the district police chief's office here, killing 1 policeman and wounding 1 more and wounding 2 US soldiers.
Kandahar: A US Air Force Predator fired a Hellfire missile at Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here.
Zardad, Afghanistan: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling US NATO forces near here. Towns called Zardad located in both Zabul and Paktika Provinces. It is not known which town is being referred to here.
Sar-e Howz, Pushtun Kot District, Faryab Province: French M2000 Mirages attacked guerrillas battling NATO forces near here. This area is 21 miles south of the capital of Faryab, Maymana. Sar-e Howz (map) is a large town. It is not known why there are guerrillas in this northern area, which ought to be peaceful.
This district is 65% Uzbek, 30% Tajik and 5% Pashtun. It is hard to see what the security problem would be here. 50% of the homes here were destroyed in the Soviet War. There is only one doctor in the entire district. Most people have to walk 1 1/2 miles to get to a source of potable water. Sanitation here is disastrous and essentially nonexistent, leading to may diseases.
Wheat, barley, millet, rice and corn are grown here. This is a fairly wet region, and 70% of the agriculture is fed by rain. The illiteracy rate is a frightening 98! Thank you George Bush! The education system is fairly good for Afghanistan and amazingly there are 17 female teachers and some girls in school.
The female student population is only 7% of male population, which is terrible. Although 10 new schools have been built, a number of schools were destroyed in the war and still have not yet been rebuilt.
It is impossible to imagine the Bush reactionaries, who oppose government spending on education, health care, and just plain in general on most everything except the military and cops, as doing much to help these poor people here.
After all, any government that spends money on those things is attacked as "socialist" and "Leftist" by the USA, and then the US attempts to attack and destroy the regime in one way or another.
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Monday, October 30
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Chenagai, Bajaur tribal Agency, Pakistan, 5 AM: Either a US predator drone or 4 US helicopters fired a missile or missiles at a madrassa here, killing about 80 suspected militants.
At least 3 persons were wounded and evacuated to a hospital in Khar, but more wounded were reportedly streaming into the hospital later in the day. The strike appeared to have killed almost everyone in the madrassa. A map of Chenagai is linked above.
US and Pakistani forces claim that the attack was led by 4 Pakistani gunships that fired missiles at the school, but ABC news published a report saying that sources in the US government or military admitted that it was a US predator drone and not Pakistani gunships.
Given the nature of the attack, previous predator drone strikes in the area, the accuracy of the drones, and the lack of skill of Pakistani helicopter gunship pilots, I think that this was either an attack by a US predator drone or an attack by US helicopters.
Further, almost everyone in Bajour insists that the attack was carried out by a Predator. They have no reason to say this if the Pakistani military really did the attack.
Adding weight to the theory, there have been previous Predator drone strikes, including one that killed Nek Mohammad, head of the Pakistani Taliban, in Mir Ali in North Waziristan. In that attack the Pakistani military also insisted that they did it, not the US.
I understand why they are lying and it is perfectly acceptable to lie in this context. It's deadly in terms of Pakistani public opinion if the Pakistani military admits it is allowing the US military to carry out deadly attacks on its soil. There is less political harm in saying that the Pakistani military did it themselves.
The madrassa was run by a pro-Taliban commander wanted by Pakistan for harboring al Qaeda fighters. Of the 80 dead, it appears that 40 of them were militants. The rest were probably just students at the madrassa or civilians. Residents said there were children among the dead.
The madrassa in Chenagai, 6 miles north of Khar, the capital of Bajour, was being used as a militant training camp, according to the Pakistani government. Surveillance showed men undergoing military training exercises there.
Although the Pakistani military said there were no civilians in the compound, a reporter in Chenagai described villagers wailing as they collected mutilated bodies, some of children as young as seven, from the rubble. The children were apparently students at the madrassa.
Disputing the Predator drone story, other locals agreed that the attacking forces were helicopters, but said they were US copters, not Pakistani. Some homes next to the madrassa were also hit in the attack.
Although most reports said that the attack took place in Chenagai, some other reports said it took place in Mamoon, near Damadola. Damadola (map here) is the site of an earlier attack on a home were Ayman Al-Zawahiri was said to be scheduled to show up a meeting in a private home there.
The home was targeted by a US predator drone, and scores of people were killed in that attack also. At least some of them were high-ranking Al Qaeda operatives.
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Payendi, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: NATO warplanes spotted a group of Taliban guerrillas setting up a firing position on a roof in the Zhari District and attacked the insurgents, killing 12 of them.
As we have noted repeatedly, there is no Zhari District in Kandahar. Instead, it is just the name for a region in the Panjwayi District 25-30 miles west of Kandahar city and largely north of the Arghandab River and near the main highway.
This attack was apparently near the town of Payendi (map), 8 miles northwest of Panjwayi, because there was an airstrike there with A-10's on this day. The A-10 dropped a GBU-12 on the guerrillas.
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Zabul Province: US forces said they killed 55 Taliban fighters here in an intense battle. 1 US soldier was killed in the fighting. Later reports lowered the 55 killed figure to 20 killed.
Now Zad, Helmand Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs fired cannon rounds on Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. There is regular bombing and fighting going on around Now Zad for a long time now.
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Ghura Ghundey Dasht, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers and French M2000 Mirages attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. Ghura Ghundey Dasht is a plain in Helmand. This plain is northwest of Garmser in a very sparsely populated area.
It is located 1/2 way between Garmser and Nawa-I-Barakzai and then about 10 miles west of the Helmand River town of Akram Kalay (map), off into the wilderness.
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Sunday, October 29
Kunar Province, near the border of Nuristan Province: Fighting broke out between guerrillas and US forces in this extremely remote region. 3 troops were wounded by guerrilla rocket attacks in the fighting.
Kajah Ulva, Afghanistan: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs fired cannon rounds, a GBU-12 and a 500-pound bomb on Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. Kajah Ulva could not be found on any map.
Shami, Parwan Province: An Air Force B1-B Lancer attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. Shami Kabol (actually called Shami) is actually located in Parvan Province, not Kabul Province. A map is here. It is located 16 miles southeast of Bagram Airbase, near the border with Kabul Province. The Taliban have been getting more active in Parvan lately.
Gereshk, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province: RAF GR-7s attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. The Gereshk area is chronically hostile with no end in sight.
Nazargol Kala, Urgun District, Paktika Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Nazargol Kala (map here) is located 2 1/2 miles northeast of Urgun, the main market town in Paktika and home of a large US base. This area is highly unstable.
Saturday, October 28
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Uruzgan Province: Roadside bomb attack on US troops here killed 1 US Special Forces soldier and wounded 8 more SF troops, 3 US National Geographic Channel journalists and 3 civilians. TMZ.com said that the journalists were embedded with the Special Forces unit in order to film a special for the channel called, The Green Berets.
A producer and photographer were flown to Germany for treatment of facial lacerations. The sound man suffered a ruptured eardrum but was treated in Afghanistan.
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North of Tarin Kot, Tarin Kot District,Uruzgan Province: 100 to 150 Taliban guerrillas attacked a NATO base here. NATO and Afghan forces fought back small arms fire, attack helicopters and air strikes in a battle lasting several hours. 70 Taliban were reportedly killed in the fighting. 1 Afghan soldier was wounded.
Payendi, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO troops near here, dropping GBU-12 bombs on them. Payendi (map) is located 5 miles northwest of Panjwayi, the capital of the district, along the Arghandab River.
Friday, October 27
Afghanistan: 1 US soldier died somewhere here from non-combat related injuries.
Monday, October 23
Pech District, Kunar Province: A mortar test-fired by US forces here fell short of its target and instead hit a home, killing 3 children and wounding 2 more kids. Troops had been firing mortars into an area where they had come under attack from guerrillas earlier.
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